The Burden of Possessions

I’m re-reading A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. I first read this book twenty years ago, and should have returned to it before now. Here is one section that has always stuck with me:

Over-valued possessions, we decided, were a burden possessing their owners. We decided to own nothing that we couldn’t be comfortable with – reproductions not originals, cheap bindings not rare editions. This idea of the burden of possessions we held to – and years later when we got our first glossy new car, we hit it severely with a hammer to make it comfortably dented.