Letters to the Editor
Xrandadu Hutman
Published Letters: 2714 Editor's Choice: 52
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I have a similar relative
[Read the article: My mom's a hoarder]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Note: Skip this message if you don't want to hear somebody pile on (pun intended) about the same problem as the LW.
My relative is a severe hoarder. It has been going on for years, with her direct siblings getting more and more frustrated. The situation will get worse before it gets better.
They've tried everything to convince her to clean up her ways. Each attempt is met with animal-like resistance. It is as if the issue of hoarding, and the stuff itself, is infused with all of the woman's accumulated life's emotions of pain, failure, and depression. Trying to change things is like trying to make somebody deeply in denial face all her problems and unhappiness at once.
She has two residences, both filled with her stuff. The cost of renting one of them has drained all her savings, but she can't move out because there's no place to put everything. (Even if there were, getting her to take useful action is impossible.) So now she is at the point of having to beg and guilt-trip people to "loan" (i.e. give) her money just to live on.
Meanwhile, both residences are so full of stuff that you can barely walk through them. They're piled high with stacks of boxes full of newspapers, shoes, and items ordered off of the Shopping Network. Instead of clearing space, a towel or blanket will be thrown over a pile of stuff so that more stuff can be piled onto it (without toppling over). Cereal boxes and other containers are saved in case the proof-of-purchase seals or coupons are ever useful. Everything has a potential use that is never exploited.
Years of mementos, and a lifetime of now-vintage clothing sit and collect dust. An entire basement, an entire garage, a living room, a family room, and every bedroom are full. At one point she had to sleep in the bathtub because the beds were so covered in things.
Nobody knows what to do. Lawyers have been consulted, advice given, but it's so much trouble that everybody is putting off whatever intervention might be undertaken. (Is it any surprise that the siblings are dealing with the problem by also going into denial?) Past attempts to help clean up were met with extreme hostility. Somebody threw away something that turned out to be a prized possession, and this resulted in yelling and tears. So nobody is interested in repeating the drama.
It's like everybody is waiting for her to die so that everything can be taken to Salvation Army in one big dumpster truck.
I know this is hardly useful to the LW, other than the "you're not the only one" angle. I've read that hoarding is a symptom of depression, as well as isolation, alienation, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and so on. To me it's like the part of the brain that wants to gather things for survival loses its ability to make decisions, so it errs in favor of everything.
I wish somebody would set me loose in her homes to see what could be sold on e-Bay. I'll bet I could turn her junk into at least a few thousand dollars.
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Great job, Mr. Olbermann
[Read the article: "Even Richard Nixon knew it was time to resign"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Too bad Bush will never hear it. His handlers will make sure it never reaches his ears. And the majority of U.S. citizens won't hear it either, even though it should be required listening/watching/reading. Instead it will get no airplay on conservative-dominated radio, no traction or replay on conservative-dominated cable news, and barely a reference in conservative-dominated newspaper editorials.
Bush commuted Libby's sentence on Monday, July 2. As of Wednesday, July 4, you couldn't find a single headline referencing his cronyist misdeed anywhere. The Drudge Report scrubbed it from his headlines even though on Monday he'd linked to dozens of stories, and even though other articles about "weird news" had lingered just as long. Even most major newspapers stopped running stories and editorials on it. By July 4th it's as if the collective unconscious was wiped clean of Bush ever having commuted Libby's prison sentence.
That's how it works: Release bad news while people are on vacation, or just before a holiday, or at the last minute before the weekend, or whatever it takes to minimize the ripple effect. Bush and company have been honing their media-manipulation skills for years. Here they're up to their old tricks yet again. Do you think anybody heard you, Mr. Olbermann? Everybody was at the beach or in the pool when you gave your eloquent speech. Your megaphone does not reach far enough.
And you forgot one important thing. Unlike Nixon, Bush does not have any mind of his own. He does not have any shame. Bush has accomplished the remarkable task of making Richard Nixon look like an honorable man by comparison.