How we encumber ourselves with possessions. There is nothing particularly new in human affairs and society about the way we go about acquiring desirous objects, for human beings have always done this, as and when they were enabled to. We have collected art for as long as we have been married, and that is well over a half-century. Gradually, bit by bit, whenever we could afford to do so, we would acquire yet another piece of art.

And, over the years, as our inventory of artwork increased, so did the need to obtain larger walls on which to hang them, which led to our purchase of our current house, decades ago. And we continued from time to time to acquire additional paintings and other kinds of art; porcelains, sculptures, clocks.

Of course, possessing these things satisfies a deeply-lodged sense of personal aesthetic. One we share in equal measure. Only one of us, however, is an accomplished artist in his own right. The other is, shall we say, the custodian of the treasures, in the sense that while we take equal pleasure in being able to see these beautiful things, it falls to me, for the most part, to look after the fundamentals of tidiness and cleanliness.

So that, when I take up the weekly chore of house-cleaning, top to bottom, one of the things to be done is the meticulous dusting process, the most time-consuming of all the pedestrian tasks.

Proving, yet again, that as we possess objects, they tend to possess us as well.