A Matter of Life and Death

My aunt died on February 6th, 2020.  It wasn’t totally unexpected, as she was transferred to hospice care on the 5th.  That doesn’t matter though; it still hurts, knowing she’s gone. Like all things, the feeling will fade and I will be left with the good memories, and a smile when I think about her.  It’s interesting to me the way that people talk about death. Some people say “passed away”, others say “they’re no longer with us”, still others say “they’re dead” or “they died”. I tend to be more matter of fact with declarations of fact and stick to “they died”, where as my wife has always said “passed away”.  I don’t know what that has to do with anything, especially when I’m so far afield from the topic of the group to begin with.

Let’s get back to Star Wars autographs.  The events of the last week, in conjunction with Andy’s topic of the day a few weeks back about our collections after we die, had me thinking.  The easy answer is that my wife or kids will sell my collection when I die. Some of what I have is specific to me, like my custom cards, and some is more generic, like the signed photos.  I’ve also never really pushed my kids into collecting and it wouldn’t surprise me if neither ended up caring about the stuff that I’ve managed to accumulate. I would like to think that they’d each have a few items that would remind them of me and hold onto those, but I don’t know that they will.  And I’m starting to realize that I don’t really care as much about the stuff I’m accumulating as much as I care about the friends and the relationships that I’m building doing it.  

We all share a common passion, no matter our collection size, focus, or depth of knowledge.  We’re all here because we love Star Wars autographs. I have met some of my best friends in this group, and that is what I value the most.  There will be clever comments (maybe) along the lines of “well send me your stuff then if you don’t care about it”, which is very funny you’re all very clever.  Without the stuff, the relationships don’t start, and without the relationships I wouldn’t get more ideas on stuff to collect and track down with my friends. The longer I stay collecting, the more people I meet and the more friends I make.  That is what I’m collecting now, I’m coming to realize more and more. I relish the opportunity to pick up a nice Mark Hamill autograph, but the sharing of the joy with my friends is the real treasure.

To mix fandoms: be excellent to each other.