Sometimes my kids catch me off gaurd by saying something surprisingly insightful. Yesterday my 5-year-old, Alden, out of the blue while playing Legos said, "Mom, you and dad are always looking for new furniture. You never stop looking, you just always get something new and then find a place for it, 'cause that's what people do."
Crap. Is that what I do?
I can say in my defense that we really don't own more furniture than most people (with the exception of our chairs), and in many cases, we probably have less. We have just acquired it over a very long period of time instead of in a few massive pottery barn shopping trips. The boy has a point, though. Will I ever stop looking? Am I always in need of something new? There is something thrilling about thrift store shopping. The hunt for the treasure buried in the piles of junk is often times just as exhilarating as the actual find. I think it can be a lot like gambling—it's hard to quit after you've won a few times, because you know there's always the possibility that you'll win again.
The question is, where is the line between thrifting as a hobby, and thrifting as an addiction? Thrift stores, ebay, and craigslist can all become forms of retail therapy, and can be used to self-medicate. It is frighteningly easy to let passions and hobbies overtake our real priorities and become the objects of our worship, giving them too much of our time, heart, and money.
Thankfully, I think I'm still in the "hobby" category, but I know I'll need to regularly check my heart on this issue.
Great post. This is something I think about a lot--the hunt, the retail-therapy aspect, the "will I ever have enough?" feeling--and of course, the danger that anything, any good thing, really, can become an idol. Thanks for articulating this so well.
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