I was watching the TV news last night. The story of the fires down near Santa Barbara came on. Let me start by saying I am very sorry for everybody's losses down there and hope the firefighters are able to contain it soon and contain it without major loss of life. As I read the paper this morning it sounds like there are more fires down in SoCal as the Santa Ana's are blowing!
The story, on the TV, was interesting. They showed pictures of multi-million dollar mansions, owned by people such as Oprah, which are in danger. My first thought was how often does Oprah really get out to Santa Barbara and does she really need a 10,000 or 20,000 square foot home there? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just rent half of the Four Season's and fly in, on a private plane, whatever of your stuff you want to have with you? Even a minor actor such as Christopher Lloyd, from Back to the Future, had his home damaged... but it didn't sound like it was his only home as his "caretaker" had to escape the flames. I don't know about you but I have ONE home and ZERO caretakers at my pad.
That's not the point of my story though. They interviewed one guy who was near tears because his house was a total loss. Was he upset about losing the family pet, his life's photos, his children's teeth that the tooth fairy had taken, or whatever other ONE OF A KIND items that he may had? NO! The old dude said, in cracking, near teary, voice... "I lost every book I have owned since I was eleven." The dude was probably 70 so had about 60 years of books in his house. Is that really necessary?
Ok, let me break the news to you dude... that's just paper. That's just paper you probably NEVER look at. That is just your OCD side kicking in that has caused you to save "every" book you have owned since you were eleven. That's scary. I used to have your problem and hoarded everything. It seemed that everything I owned was part of a "collection." You know what? That's just CRAP! It's really just a bunch of garbage.
I honestly think the fire did that dude a favor by burning up his books. I think we have all asked ourselves at times what would I save if I only had a few minutes to get out of the house. I say pets (even though I don't really like them that much), photo albums, and the kid's baby boxes with assorted stuff that I know Kitty Kat does not want to lose to a fire. However, what about my $30 or $40 g's worth of baseball cards? Honestly, it would be doing me a favor to burn them up. Sure the insurance company wouldn't give me the true replacement cost of $30 or $40 g's and would probably give me about 1/10th that amount. However, that would be fine. I would go buy a few special cards and I would gain a large walk in closet, once my house was rebuilt, for other stuff to be kept in. Actually, I wouldn't have any stuff after the fire so the kids could use that closet for hide and seek or make a little fort it in or something!?
Seriously though, I think we as a people get way too worried about our collections of crap. I like my baseball cards but every single one of them is replaceable. If I really wanted to I could buy every single one of them again. I have a list of most of them and it's saved on computers in multiple locations so the list should survive the fire. If I wanted I could go spend $40 or $50 g's and get every card again. However, would I?
I really would not. I would buy a few special cards like I have now: '49 Robinson, '63 Rose, '67 Carew, '72 Erving, '80 Bird/Johnson/Erving, '86 Jordan and of course '94 Allen. However, do I really need complete sets of Topps from 1974 through 1991? I should say NOT. What about the 25,000 ungraded "star" cards? No, I don't need those either. They all just take up space. Give me a few special cards and I am good.
I believe the book man down in Montecito should listen to this. Go to some special bookstore, maybe in New York or London, and buy a FEW great books. Put them on display so you and your friends can see them. Make sure the display can be opened so people can actually READ these books. Beyond that, why the F' do you need EVERY book you have owned since age 11? That's just plain STUPID. If nothing else you created a great environment, with all that dry paper, for the fire to spread. I would call that contributory negligence!
peace out.
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