Independent Perspective News

He sold everything on the Internet and went to meet his objects' new owners around the world.

Sick and tired of his life, John Freyer, a young American, sold "everything" on e-Bay and set off in search of his old stuff. He earned money, notoriety and friends. But he couldn't solve his problems.

Even if we don't realize, some personal objects we treasure have immeasurable effects on us. Yet sometimes many of us wake up one day to find out our lives have turned into an accumulation of sticky memories lying in a dead, dull archive. Becoming aware of this, only few decide to leave everything behind. That's what John Freyer did, who put all this belongings up for sale. He was 28, he had a brilliant career ahead of him as a just graduate student from the University of Iowa, US, and he even was in love. But he was unhappy, suffocated and couldn't understand why. Until he found out the problem was at home, that he had been living with it.

What had been overwhelming him was all the stuff he had accumulated through his life; too many things, too many memories. He asked himself: "Are these things what define me as a person? Are them the certification of my identity? Will I get by if I let go all my belongings?" It took him five minutes to find the answer: "I'll try". The following day he put up for sale all his stuff, all his life. His friends thought it was just another of his eccentricities, although some suspected he was planning to commit suicide. Freyer sold everything, or almost, through the Internet, on the famous online auction site e-Bay: beginning with a one-dollar starting price, he sold 600 objects for 6.000 dollars.

Back then, mid year 2000, his story became pretty well-known: for a year, Freyer was a frequent matter of interest; he would be interviewed here and there and he would appear in the most prestigious newspapers of the world. But there's a part of his story that never saw the light, which, nevertheless, deserves to the told. At least from Freyer's point of view, being about to publish a book titled "All My Life For Sale". After emptying his apartment, he decided to follow the trail of those who had bought the objects that used to define his life. He traveled the world to meet his "heirs" and see who had his favorite records. Thus, "All My Life For Sale" (www.allmylifeforsale.com) became a catalogue, a biography, a diary and a "profound" reflection on the meaning of objects and what happens when we let them go.

Freyer says that one of the things that happen is that one makes friends. On the website www.temporama.com he gathered the chronicles of his trips in search of the sold objects and came to the conclusion that commerce is not just an exchange of goods, but also of culture. "I saw that the exchange of objects is, actually, an exchange of ideas", he says.

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