The Deep-Seated Meaning of the American Sofa : NPR

Damn you, NPR! You’ve reminded me of yet another idea I’ve had for a long time  and never did anything about:  The Deep-Seated Meaning Of The American Sofa.  (Good headline by the way.)

Read Linton Weeks’ story, it’s an intriguing look at an under-explored aspect of our lives. I’ve always felt that the sofa (or couch) has important psychic meaning for individuals, and if you get someone talking about their personal sofa stories you’ll learn an awful lot about them. Sofas are significant witnesses to — and often participants in — every phase of our lives, at various times shaping and reflecting our ideas about nurturing, status, family, relationships, sex, money and culture. In my time on earth I have experienced and learned many things through  …

• Sofa beds
• Sofas covered in plastic
• The It’s-a-Futon-But-It’ll-Do Trend
• The ridiculous Gargantuan Sofa Trend
• The uncomfortable Post-Modern Sofa Trend
• The annual summer-break Student-Sofa-Disgorgement Trend
• Sofa phobias
• Basement sofas
• Eating on sofas
• Boyfriends on sofas
• Houseguests sleeping on sofas
• Pets shedding on sofas
• Tears shed on sofas (my own, others’)
• The sofa-in-coffee-shop trend
• First hand-me-down sofa (received, given)
• First sofa bought with my own earnings
• First Bona Fide Adult Sofa
• People who, when given the chance, will / will not take the third spot on a sofa
• Sofa napping
• Sofa depressions (literal, mental, figurative)
• Sofa mistakes (OMG it won’t fit through the door!)
• Sofa remorse (why why why did I go with a pattern?)
• Unwelcome roommate sofas
• Losing things in sofas
• Finding things in sofas

So,  I am thinking … Sofa Story Corps. I gotta get on that.