I sold my baseball card collection last year.  Recently, I was thinking about my baseball cards, and thought about why I kept them for so long.  After some thought I came to the conclusion that Baseball Cards for many of us, reminds us of a simpler time.  A time full of optimism and hope.  A time where we could go onto the ball field and chew bubble gum or eat sunflower seeds.  A time where we could cheer on our fellow teammates from the dugout.  It reminds us of a time where we didn’t have so much responsibility, where we didn’t always have to worry about bills, work, and so forth. Looking at those cards can help remove us from the hardships and struggles of day to day life.  It brings back the feeling of our youth’s unquestioning happiness and ignorant bliss.   Then, as we get older, our intellectual development increased and we become aware of the world around us. We escaped this new found adult reality, by looking into our past where things were much simpler and happier.  As we move towards the black abyss, we try to find light anyway we can.  It’s essentially a way to escape our reality.  Everyone does it in different ways, some more extreme than others (escaping their reality).  Whether it be through drugs, baseball cards, toy trains, money, sex, eating, working, or religion, everyone copes in their own way. Maybe one of my coping mechanisms was my baseball card collection.  And what are we really trying to heal ourselves from?  Is it day to day responsibilities like going to work or paying bills?  Sure, that has something to do with it, but only on a very superficial level.  I think what everyone knows (but not everyone talks about it), that the ultimate questions is what stresses us most – what are we doing here? what’s our purpose? what happens when we die?  Is there a god?  Is there heaven?  Is there hell?  The deeper questions is what haunts us on a daily basis.  But, what’s interesting to point out is that most of us don’t bother ourselves with those types of questions (maybe that’s another coping mechanism).  Uncertainty in not knowing the answers to those questions is what causes us to have fear and anxiety.  Nothing is controllable.  Nothing is predictable. One day you here and the next you may not be….  This could be the reason why we try to control the environment around us with science, laws, etc.  Bringing order to this disorderly universe.  Coping with our fears, we turn to things that can either help answer our fears or help hide them.