NYT: The Tyranny of the Heirloom

Among the news of North Korea's demolition of a cooling tower at a nuclear power plant and the SCOTUS decision on hand gun ownership was this delightful article about what to do with the family "heirlooms" and an even more delightful plethora of comments - particularly those about families torn apart by who gets Aunt Martha's faux-vintage spatterware collander.

I like stuff - and the late, great George Carlin would have had a field day with me. I like my family's stuff too - the dining room furniture, the recently reupholstered living room couch, the weird marble table with the French bronze d'or statue my grandmother had made. But at the end of the day, and when the time comes (hopefully not for a long, long time), if my sisters want it, it's not worth fighting over. We've had our tiffs (and GIFs and JPEGs) and our relationship is not without the occassional friction (even if it's internalized), but nothing's more important than knowing help and love is just a phone call away.