Stuff

Which state of matter expands to fill the entire volume that contains it?
a. solid
b. liquid
c. gas
d. stuff

When we first got married, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment. And all of the stuff we had between the two of us didn't fill up the space. That included all the shower gifts we would never use, all our clothes, and the bits of furniture we had picked up here and there. Ah, the simple days!

After about six months, we moved to a three-bedroom house. Oh, the space! And that's when our stuff began to grow. I think maybe different bits of our stuff would secretly get together when we weren't home and reproduce. Or maybe it was just simple fission - one thing splitting to become two separate things. Or mabye the All-Powerful Stuff Wizard would pop in and grant us more stuff. Whatever the reason, the quantity of our possessions grew.

It wasn't all bad. We did enjoy all the things we ended up with. And we still had room for it all, although as the years went by, there wasn't as much extra room as there had been before. Things began to get a little more cluttered than they had been. Things like dusting and vacuuming took a little longer, because there was more to work around. And then there started to be the possibility of having to give up some stuff to make room for more! Gasp!

You realize just how much stuff you have when you have to move it all. Such was the case for us after six years, as we moved to a new house. Slightly more room in the new house than in the old house. And then we did get rid of a little bit of our stuff, just so that we wouldn't have to move it. And of course, once again our stuff has grown.

Some days, I want to get rid of most all our stuff, keeping only the essential things. Surely it could be done. People of the past, and even people today, have made it without anywhere near as much stuff as we have. I think we could, too. But then I see some new CD at Best Buy that I just can't live without. Or some new gadget to do this or that. Gotta have it. More stuff! But I keep trying to do better.

So you can see why I believe stuff expands to fill the entire volume that contains it. At least that's the case in the Baldwin household.