“Flea markets proliferate a volume of goods needing to be sold and people who are hungry — emotionally and aesthetically — to sort out the meaning of life … For most people who go on these ritualized scavenger hunts looking for something that they may not know exists, it is a kind of pilgrims’ process through the detritus of the past.”
Whoah.
And you thought you were just looking for something funky to stick on a bookshelf in the living room.
Way deep insights on the meaning of flea markets (and life) provided by Michael Prokopow, an Ontario College of Art and Design University history professor who teaches a course called “Stuff.”
Prokopow was quoted in a NY Times story about the growth of flea markets in New York City—a place where people have been struggling to find the meaning of life (and ways to afford living there) for centuries.
Speaking of stuff, May 14 is Give Your Stuff Away Day.
MORE ABOUT STUFF:
What Stuff Costs
Study: When You Feel Loved, You Love Stuff Less
Spring Cleaning: Instead of Getting More Stuff, Get Rid of Some for a Change
