So, the other night, my 17-year-old daughter and I were channel surfing, looking for a “documentary” to laugh at (like Extraterrestrial Major Leaguers: The Real Story of the 1927 Yankees), when we landed on Auction Kings, a program on the Discovery Channel that basically films the inner workings of an auction house.
My first thought: Meh. People sell junk. People buy junk. And maybe, if it’s a slow episode, someone’ll clean the junk. My second thought—at least my second critical, cogent thought—came 90 minutes later, after we’d watched three full episodes and forced ourselves to turn off a fourth.
Oh, I had other thoughts in the interim. I’ll turn it off right after I find out if that John Hancock signature is real, I thought. Can that beat-up chest really be worth $75,000? I thought. Why would anyone even want to get rid of a guitar signed by Johnny Cash? I thought.
And then, once the television was off, I thought, I like junk too much.
It’s natural, I suppose, that I’d like my own junk. I’ve got lots of it to like. Somewhere in my crawlspace, I have a box of unopened (but theoretically collectable) Coke cans. I have a box of old Hot Wheels cars. I have a box of college English papers. Somewhere in there, I’m sure I have a box of high school notes cute girls passed to me in class once upon a time. Won’t my wife and I get a laugh at those when we run across them.
But apparently, I like other people’s junk, too. And I must not be alone.
Look at the “educational” part of the television dial, and you’ll see scads of shows about antiques, collectible oddities and plain ol’ trash. PBS has its Antiques Roadshow. The History Channel has its Pawn Stars. One of cable’s highest-rated shows (American Pickers, also on the History Channel) features two guys rummaging through other people’s garages, warehouses, basements and back yards in hopes of finding something worth something—from a rare-but-rusted motorscooter to a gigantic Piggly Wiggly head.
And then, if that wasn’t enough, you can flip over to A&E and watch Hoarders, where mental health experts encourage people to give up some of their mounds and mounds of junk.
Does our preoccupation with stuff, even on television, speak to something unique and, perhaps, a little bothersome about American culture? I think it might. We’re an affluent society, well trained in the arts of consumerism by the time we’re out of our diapers. And if this is a problem, I’m a part of it: When I watched Auction Kings, I wasn’t mulling whether bidders wouldn’t be better off putting their money into a worthwhile charity instead of buying a first edition of The Great Gatsby. I was thinking, Man, I’d love to get my hands on one of those.
It goes without saying, I guess, that most of us should treasure the intangible joys around us more—our family, friends, the fact that we’re blessed every day to see another sunrise. I plan to take more time to embrace the truly priceless gifts I’ve been given.
Right after I check to see how much my Coke cans are worth on eBay.
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