There is ample evidence that collecting is an inherited tendency. But sometimes there may be something in our personal history to explain why we collect what we do. A NYTimes obit for an Alex Shear(1/26/14), who was identified as “a collector of American kitsch,” offers an example. Shear’s bio mentions that Mr. Shear’s father, a toy wholesaler, had a warehouse filled with “inaccessible objects of desire: yo-yos, HulaHoops, Flexible Flyers.” Apparently, the father was inaccessible as well, someone who could be reached only “through his stuff.” The man was extreme. He had a rule according to which his son could borrow any toy in the warehouse as long as he returned it in the original box and in “mint” condition. Among Shear’s own collections are a vast number of toys, including many Flexible Flyer sleds, but all out and inviting play. Shear seems to have inherited a proclivity for collecting but also to have been driven to undo his father’s bizarre look-but-don’t-touch dictum. A peculiar childhood constraint became the fuel for a lifetime passion that, in this case, can be traced back to its original source. How wonderful that something so negative in the father can be transformed into something so satisfying in the son.

topics: culture