Life to the Fullest

My latest guilty pleasure reality show is Hoarders on A&E. It is amazing to see people’s homes filled to the top with treasures (aka trash) that they have collected over the years. We are talking about rooms filled with stacks of newspaper, clothes from 1972, loaded guns buried in closets where rat feces have been found. Refrigerators filled with spoiled food, growing things within and outside of them. We are talking about adult protective services coming to take folks out their homes because they are just unlivable and naaaaaaaaaasty! It is just fascinating to watch. It’s even more amazing to discover that these hoarders are married and have children who have learned to live with and deal with their crap. A couple weeks ago a couple purchased a second home because their first one became inhabitable because of the items the wife had collected, paying two mortgages left them cash strapped and facing foreclosure, but they couldn’t sell either home because they were both filled the hoarding wife’s trash.

Last night’s episode featured Jim and Claudie, a black couple from Illinois who had been married for 37 years and had 12 children. Claudie’s hoarding had gotten so bad that Jim told her that he was going out for a little bit and that he would see her later. Well…Jim didn’t come home for over a year and during Jim’s absence Claudie was forced to live in a homeless shelter! It was pure craziness, and if I was able to get to Youtube on this here government computer I totally share the link… But in a few words the episode was deliciously tragic to watch. And I got to thinking about Jim who told his wife that he’d be back in a few and high tailed it off to Vegas to live a new life, and probably with a new wife. Many other viewers have their opinions about Jim but while watching the show I was beginning to get a little jealous of Jim. Here this man was in his 70s, been married to his wife for decades, has a house in shambles and he is able to get up and walk away? Say word? That’s both messed up and awesome at the same time! Messed up only because adulthood teaches us to strap responsibility on our backs by way of bills, work and family and carry it singing a song and wearing a smile. But here I am in my 20s and I am often reciting the childlike phrase “I don’t wanna!” And as Rum Punch mentioned the other day it’s easy to get into a wash-rinse-repeat cycle of living our lives. And so it’s a little bit awesome that Jim could look at his situation (and I will acknowledge that Jim isn’t wrapped too tight either) throw up the deuces and keep it moving to Vegas. I wish I had the guts to do the same sometimes.

So at the church house on Sunday pastor got his preach on talking about living life to the fullest. And I began to wonder if I was. Honestly and truly. Surely there is more to life that working, paying bills, meeting friends for dinner and movies. Surely there is more to life than amassing a whole bunch of things and hoarding them in my closet. But does living life to the fullest mean walking away from the mundane just because I don’t wanna? Imma say no. And I’m saying that because I’m an adult and that’s what I am suppose to say. But if I am not filling my life with the aforementioned things, then what should I be filling it with?

I guess how people should live their lives is a question that has been asked for ages. Be it watching a hobby develop into a way of life, dissolving stereotypes by climbing the corporate ladder, representing the misrepresented or interpreting life through the written word we are filling our lives with something. Maybe the key to living life to the fullest is sharing it with others.

See You In Seven