There was a story, linked to below, in the New York Times about a week ago that I’ve been waiting to read until I had the time to fully absorb it, and I have to say it’s a very interesting and unconventional take on the meaning of antiques in modern society. Titled, “The Tyranny of the Heirloom,” it’s an entertaining and well-written article, if a bit long, so make sure you’re ready to commit.

The gist of the article is this: A lot of us live with items – I don’t want to say antiques, because they’re not always antiques – that we really can’t stand, but have to, because they’re family heirlooms.

The article from the Times – a great title, really – is all about New Yorkers, which gives the struggle of its subjects some extra poignancy, because living in the city is hard enough without schlepping around huge pieces of furniture, cumbersome paintings and delicate porcelain and ceramics.

What is most intriguing about the article, and the articles these people are lugging around them, is the psychological reasons, and trust me, all the reasons are psychological.

I personally sympathize with these people, and not just because I lived in Manhattan for so long – I learned to live light in my time there, and have only accumulated an immense amount of stuff since moving off the island and settling down. No, I sympathize because I come from a family that came from families that survived not only The Great Depression, but also World War II. My great-grandparents and grand parents measured themselves in large part by the things that they had, having come from times of such austerity. Those traits were passed on to folks like my parents, and a lot of baby boomers.

Reading the Times article I definitely got the idea, especially because my mother has begun to ship, one slow box at a time, so many of the “treasures” that she and my father have lugged around with them since before I was born; a load that has gotten progressively larger as the decades have passed.

You will either laugh your behind off reading this article, or you will cringe and cover your eyes with one hand, fingers cracked just enough to keep reading. Probably both.

Enjoy it here.

-Noah Fleisher