@HomewithDean – Homily 05/21

We’ve been talking today about closets and storage space and how it seems that every time you leave your home you are more likely than not to return with more stuff. Stuff just seems to attach itself to us in our world. It’s like static cling or something. And we don’t help matters much because we seem genetically predisposed—thanks to our hunter-gatherer ancestors—to hold on to stuff. Hunting and gathering is the very definition of bringing home more stuff.But of course there is a big difference between us and our ancestors. The stuff they brought home was intended to fill up pretty much just one void: their empty stomachs. We, on the other hand, we bring home stuff in an attempt to fill other voids. Instead of satisfying hunger most of our stuff is intended to satisfy things like boredom, or depression, or meaning. And if you think I’m going to get all non-materialistic on you and tell you that’s wrong, think again. Having enough stuff can be very comforting. Having enough stuff doesn’t necessarily make you happy, but it can make you less sad.So no, I’m not anti-stuff. What I’m against is clutter. Clutter is when your stuff starts getting in your way. It’s when you’re holding on to too much stuff and that stuff is weighting you down, distracting you, pulling at you, demanding too much of you, taking more than it’s giving, and generally getting in the way.Uh oh … are we still just talking about the stuff in your house? Or does the same rule hold true with stuff in our hearts and minds? Do we not get cluttered with memory and emotion? With nostalgia and griefs? With resentments and wounds and regrets? With pain and procrastination and avoidance? And the list goes on and on, does it not?The simple truth is humans gather stuff. We hold on to stuff. And sometimes, perhaps far too often, we hold on to stuff for too way long. So long that it becomes clutter. Its one thing to have clutter in our home. It’s a whole other thing to have clutter in our hearts and minds. Stuff we’re holding on to that is pulling at us, taki