New Fic: Belongings

[namasteyoga]

Title: Belongings
Author: Namaste
Rating: Gen
Summary: The things we keep say a lot about us. So do the things we leave behind.
Beta: Auditrix
Excerpt:
The wooden box became the neutral ground on everything he owned until he left home. He could buy whatever he wanted, Dad told him, as long as it fit in the box come moving time. The secondhand

Comments

[pwcorgigirl]

They were wrong. He was more than what he held in his hand. Sometimes what we keep, he told himself, is merely what we were left with when everything else went away.

An entire life is summed up in that last sentence. As always, this is extraordinary, beautiful writing that speaks to both the head and the heart of the reader.

[namasteyoga]

Thanks. When I saw "Measure of a Man" the other day -- when I was still slogging my way through what exactly this story was about -- I thought: "Dang. pwcorgigirl beat me to it!"

[pwcorgigirl]

Oh, I just did the clothes. You've done the whole man here. It is a beautiful explanation of the fascinating stuff House has collected.

(My husband's dad was a career Navy pilot, and they moved 32 times in 17 years. Their older son was talking just this weekend about how he needs to have his collections of stuff around him because for half of his life, most of their belongings were in storage.)

[namasteyoga]

You may have just done the clothes, but you did them so well. (Notice there's barely a mention of clothing in this.)

I cannot tell you the number of times I read your stuff and think: I wish I could write like corgigirl.

[pwcorgigirl]

Thank you. I often think that about your writing, particularly the details you add that make it so visually rich but it's not over-burdened. That's a very fine touch that I greatly admire.