Hoard: noun “A stock or store of money or valued objects, typically one that is secret or carefully guarded.”(Oxford American Dictionary)
Maybe you’ve seen the A&E show, Hoarders, or possibly caught an episode of TLC’s, Hoarding: Buried Alive. Both chronicle the lives of obsessive/compulsive hoarders. Neither is an easy show to watch. The pathological obsessions people have with “things” is unbelievably unnerving.
What I’ve noticed, though, is that the most disturbing aspect of this compulsive disorder, at least in my mind, is what is being hoarded. The things that become valued aren’t necessarily what you would expect. It would be one thing to hoard food, or family heirlooms, but food wrappers, cardboard boxes and paper cups? Something just doesn’t seem right.
But then I got to thinking about how difficult it is to cut ties with all the junk that eats away at us. You know what I mean: anger, bitterness, a grudge, and above all, the need for power and control. These are things that ever-so-slowly erode the heart, only making it harder to cut loose because of the tendency to cling to them. It isn’t all that different from those who destroy their lives, as well as they lives of the ones the love, through hoarding.
