Like many Americans, I'm about to downsize. The crisp commemorative paper I stood in line for is lying on top of a pile of things I haven't sorted through yet: birthday gifts, parts from four different cameras, clothes I need to mend, and a dresser full of beads and crafting materials. In my living room I've heaped almost half of the clothes from my closet, all either too small, too big, not quite my color, or no longer remotely in style (bare midriff tank tops anyone?).
(No, I wasn't kidding.)I still have the rest of two closets, two rooms, a bathroom, and a file cabinet to clean out by Thanksgiving. For someone who moved here with little more than three suitcases four years ago, I've managed to accumulate an impressive mass of "semi-useful" things.
While some of these items easily separate into piles of wheat (unused light bulbs) and chaff (frayed old purses), I stumbled across a box of memories last night that ground my sorting process to an instant halt. Worthless to anyone else, each cheap bauble in this colorful collection of activist buttons, old jewelry, Girl Scout pins, notes, and pictures represents something I don't ever want to give up -- even if I have no idea what I want to do with it.
The door to my new home is hardly the eye of a needle, and I'm sure all the belongings I wish to bring will fit through it when push comes to shove. Maybe. If I get rid of about half of them. But instead of thinking about that, I can't help picturing the new things I want to get, like a big enough frame to allow the triumphant gray paper portrait of Victorious Obama and Family to hang out on the wall next to my boyfriend's Magna Carta of King John... It would be so sad to fold it into yet another box tucked away in the closet, waiting for something unknown.
I'm sure my minimalist boyfriend is laughing as he reads this, but he, too, has his treasured collection of books and random large cooking implements. Everyone has something, right?
If you got a paper on Nov. 5, what are you planning on doing with it? What other things do you keep? And does anyone have any clue where to find a frame that will fit an unfolded newspaper???
1 comment:
I still have the front page of the Washington Post from September 12, 2001. My reason for keeping it (and the Obama paper) is this: if I'm ever involved in the life of a child, I think it would be cool to pass on this bit of realia for use in a project. When I was in high school taking American Lit, we talked about early twentieth century school books, one of which was the McGuffey reader. I happened to mention this to my dad that night, and he produced one that had belonged to my grandfather. I brought it in the next day. The experience of actually thumbing through the book in class and analyzing the handwritten notes totally changed the understanding of that period of history. Maybe my two saved copies of papers can do the same for a student in the future.
Post a Comment