Does collecting bring true joy?

Great post from Lipripper660. You've touched on a lot of life's joys, including the shaving community. And churchilllafemme, it's time for another cup of coffee...

And Lipripper660, as you're a neighbor, feel free to join us for coffee next time you're in the Seattle area...

What a great post, and a great reminder to appreciate what we have and look for the joy available for to us to experience every day if we just slow down and pay attention. As for the question “idoes my shaving equipment bring me joy?”, I agree that the journey of finding, trying, and learning new skills and trying new tools has been joyful. As you said, the people you encounter on the journey have a lot more to do with this than the things you acquire or use. Being a (sometimes myopically) goal directed person, “enjoying the journey“ continues to be a learning experience for me. My journey included learning and trying new techniques and tools, and determining what worked best for me. It has been an interesting exercise. I’m now at the phase where I have a good idea of what I like the best and I am narrowing down the collection significantly. Passing along advice and gear that others might like can also be a joyful experience. I actually find that part more enjoyable than the acquisitions. Having said that, part of what I enjoy in this is the variety, so having a number of razors to choose from or soaps to choose from depending on what hits me has become an enjoyable activity, replacing something that used to be a real chore to me.

Now, back to the original question of “experiencing true joy”, I find that true joy in my life comes from faith, family, and friends, not hobbies or things.

Happiness and joy is a condition of the mind and can be brought on only fleetingly by obtaining things and more permanently by introspection.

Joy probably comes best through family, friends, helping others, and creative work. All these good joy-bringing things, though, can also be a source of stress and frustration. I think we'd all agree that at the end of the day looking for joy can involve a lot of hard work. On the other hand, collecting soap and razors and brushes is fun and easy. It won't likely lead to true and lasting joy, but it may give you a break from the things that will. From time to time a good shave is just what you need to cool off and calm down before climbing back on the joy wagon.

For me, collecting was motivated by an obsessive belief that there was something better than what i had--a better razor, better blade, better soap, etc. And sometimes there really was something better. But I've mostly stopped the chase though last week i bought the Feather AS-D2. It's a great razor. And it had been years since I'd bought a new razor.

I know people who have enormous collections of whatever twirls their ticket. I know others who have one special item they cherish and look after. As long as the acquisitive urge is kept in check, meaning it's a source of fun and pleasure, why not?

I've learned that for me, no matter how keenly I'm hankering after the new toy, eventually the novelty wears off; still, I get great pleasure out of it even post-novelty. To give you an example, several years ago I was practically in heat for an Above the Tie SE-1. Eventually I bought it. It sat in a drawer and saw little use. The other day I loaded it and shaved. The excitement of the newness is gone but the vast appreciation for the workmanship, the rugged beauty of the thing, and of course the shave brought me lots of satisfaction. I like knowing that I have what I've collected so far, which is far less than some but not inconsiderable. But I'm also pleased that I'm in no rush to acquire more.

Very very nice post!

I dropped into wetshaving in June 2018, and I started out with a cheap Merkur 38c, a noname badger brush from the drugstore and a tub of Palmolive cream. As soon as I found the first forums, the RAD and BAD started - mainly because I was seeing all of the awesome gear folks posted on the SOTD's and BST's. When I bought a Rockwell 6S, I called myself an ass, and I swore to myself I would never ever spend more than 100 EUR on a razor. Sure, soon enough followed more purchases, and it all spiralled out of control, ending with a BBS-1 that I paid some 1.400 EUR for.

This year in May, I realized it had become addictive and even unhealthy, and I had arrived at a point where all the wheeling and dealing stood above all else, and that was when I decided to cut it all down to reasonable amounts again, and I'm happy that I did.

In my prime, I was sitting with 15 high-end razors, ~35 brushes and 45-50 soaps. Did it bring me true joy, looking at it all sitting prettily on my shelve? No. Did all of the stuff work better than my cheap starter's gear? No. I do enjoy the products, and more so the connections with all the nice people I got to know, but it's not really what I would call "joy".

For me, true and pure joy comes from my two kids. There are so many moments that are prizeless and worth more than anything else in the world:

- Every day, when I get home from work, I would not open the door myself, but ring the bell, and hear them scream "Daddy's home!!" from inside, and they would come running, tear the door open and give me hugs.
- I bring them to bed, and my 5 year old says "Dad, I love you 100 million trillion billion times around the globe".
- Experiencing the moment when my son learnt to ride his bike by himself, his little sister trailing on her Bobby Car, trying to keep up.
- Surprising them with little ordinary things, like a glittering pebble from a river or a small flower, that to them seem like the most valuable treasures, and seeing how happy it makes them.
- Being able to take them them on a vacation, and for them to treasure the impressions and memories, like I did, when I was a child.

Spending time with my family, and seeing my loved ones grow up and learn and hopefully become good and loveable persons brings true joy to my life, which no collection of material goods can replicate.

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Good thoughts, thanks for posting them.  Through my years of collecting Somerset Simpson brushes, vintage NOS Gillette razors, vintage English soaps and creams, and now Rooney Finest brushes, I have found that it is not the possession of them that gives me joy as much as it is the searching and finding, as well as the interactions with other shavers while doing so.  The shared exploration is what pleases me.  Plus, as the OP noted, my shaving time is a respite, a time for meditation and peace.

Very good, once you have them you have them to look at. However, the search I believe is much more satisfying and intriguing. Will I find one or not; that to me could be joyful.

To me, joy is a personal thing. I have a lot of shaving equipment, several Harley Davidsons, cars, thousands of albums CDs and vinyl, wines, etc. If I lost some or all of those things I would feel bad for a period of time but I would not hurt.

WHAT BRING ME JOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY IS MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE, MY SON, MY GORGEOUS GRANDDAUGHTER AND MY LOYAL AND LOVING DOGS. TO ME THAT IS JOY I FEEL IN MY HEART.

I've been thinking about this since you first posted Lipripper660 and I've come around to the view that not all joy is equal. There are the tiny joys of a really good cup of coffee in the morning or a particularly excellent shave. I see the collecting of shaving gear to be a task in support of the ultimate goal - the shave.

When it comes to the joy of seeing your child for the first time, or every other time thereafter, now that's a whole different level of joy. The feeling comes not from "having" or "possessing" a child or a spouse but rather the experience of sharing life's journey with them, guiding them, teaching them, loving them. Am I proud of my kids? Sure I am, but mostly I'm humbled and grateful that I've had the opportunity to be a meaningful part of their lives. You can get the same joy from your partner or your friends - people with whom you've mutually chosen to share the journey through thick and thin. What more does a person need?

I know that the question was "Does Collecting Bring True Joy?" I guess my response is that collecting can bring you joy, but true joy comes from family and friends and the the experiences you share with them.