Collectors

I know people who collect things. I'm not really a collector myself.
Once upon a time I had a collection of stuffed animals. I won a giant teddy bear in a carnival game when I was little. After that, I got pretty good at maneuvering the Skill Crane and won hundreds of stuffed toys. I think the feeling of winning was at the root of that collection. At some point, I understood that they were just taking up space and not serving any real purpose. When I realized that they could actually make someone else happy, I gave the entire collection away one day and never looked back.

Anyway, I suppose I was wondering why people collect things when I started writing this. I've known people who seem to collect pets. It seems strange to me compare living things to trinkets that are collected, but that's the way I interpreted it. The love of animals certainly wasn't the reason for keeping the pets. I mean, the poor things were seriously sentenced to life in prison. Some in cages, some in back yards. The locations varied. The treatment of the animals was the important thing. They weren't really fed the quality foods, or given proper exercise. Things the animals needed to have in order for them to THRIVE were neglected. The animals eventually died and were replaced with new victims.

I've seen others do similar things with cars, dishes, clothes, etc. Most of the stories end the same. The things end up destroyed. It's as if everything is superficially treated as if it is valuable. Ultimately, everything loses value. If everything is given the same importance, nothing is special.

What's the point?