On being and spring cleaning

Humphrey spent the weekend in a flurry of spring cleaning activity, which involved a great deal of sorting and purging. This resulted in no less than eight glorious trips to the big blue recycling bin. Once all the activity was over, Humphrey rediscovered Jean Paul Sartre.

Humphrey re-reads Part 4: Having, Doing and Being

The book resurfaced during the cleaning of the library. Part 4: Having, Doing and Being seemed to him just the thing to read, since he and his guardian eliminated loads of old files from their lives.

Sartre wrote that possessions enslave a person - once you own something, you experience a burden of having to take care of that item. In this way, giving a gift is actually a form of distruction, since the receiver takesn on the burder of finding a place for that gift.

Humphrey does not, in any way, feel enslaved by his possessions.

"I completely disagree. What is wrong with this guy?" Humphrey asked his guardian.

"He's right - look at how much effort I have to spend organizing and cleaning all this stuff - we even need a bigger place to house all our possessions, Humph."

Humphrey disagreed. "Are you kidding? Look how much fun spring cleaning is! The possessions make us free to play! They stimulate creativity! Sartre is wrong on this, just he was about his view on 'other people.' If you're going to buy into French intellectuals, stick to the Situationists. 'Sous les paves, la plage!'"

He picked up his duck squeaky and proceeded to play.

Squeakies = Joy