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It's easy to accumulate too many things as a collector. Add to that being a thrift shopper and the possibility for crossing the line from collecting into hoarding comes dangerously close. Nowhere does this problem manifest itself more clearly than with neckties. Fortunately I still maintain a grip on the situation, if a very tenuous one, and I regularly cull my own tie collection, only to make room for more acquisitions.

This week, I was putting a number of my own ties up for sale in the web shop, when I came to this one and it gave me pause. It's a hunter green tie with woven orange motif of Manneken Pis, the (in)famous fountain in Brussels, Belgium (which amazingly has its own website). Nabbed for less than a dollar if I remember right in a dusty shop crammed with all manner of everything, it's made of a blend of mostly polyester and a whiff of silk. Mrs. G hates it, and I have never worn it. Still, at the last moment I couldn't bear to part with it.

It's amazing to me that not only did someone have this tie manufactured, but at some point somebody commissioned this fabric. Imagine the conversation at the mill. Incredible. I have to keep it, how can I let it go, really? C'mon.  It's likely that I'll rarely wear it, if at all. But things like this are necessary, if for no other reason than to offer an occasional reminder not to take my clothes, or myself, to seriously.

Sorry, Mrs. G.