Keepers

[patrick_vecchio]

Comments

[anita_margarita]

My mother kept everything - I suppose due to the Depression - and after she died I had not only a treasure trove of very nice things but also a lifetime supply of cottage cheese and sour cream containers, toasters that hasn't worked in 30 years, more paperback books than any human ought to own, watches and eyeglasses, wallets and billfolds, photographs with vague notations of unfamiliar people. I am having a hard time parting with any of it.

[patrick_vecchio]

I wouldn't be able to throw away those watches, that's for sure.

[pink_halen]

I struggle with that same problem I have too much stuff that is moderately dear to me. It makes me think of "Hector, the collector" by Shel Silverstein.

[patrick_vecchio]

"Moderately dear." Nice!

[sahlah]

Having moved house recently - I especially understand your post. In addition to our own mess we had the entire contents of his mother's place in Maine in our garage.

Some days the sorting, recycling and trashing were therapeutic, other days only painful. Some of the pain remains in small Home Depot boxes in a storage unit less than a mile from where I sit today.

Such is life.

[patrick_vecchio]

Your "some of the pain" sentence is a beauty.

[e_d_young]

This post was very moving.

They’ll find that filing cabinet, look at the contents, and wonder why I had kept it.

No...because you might have broken the cycle: Eventually, I threw almost everything away. Well, okay, maybe the person will wonder a little bit, just a tad, why you kept it.

[patrick_vecchio]

Tonight I thought of a use for one of the things I kept, so there's that ...

[e_d_young]

Yeah, I understand; I didn't miss that point. I was unable to articulate my thoughts completely because there were levels of complexity and I can be kinda slow.

[patrick_vecchio]

I didn't think you missed anything; I was just making an offhand comment. Now that I think about it, though, finding a use for one of those pieces speaks to why my father kept all that stuff around. It's odd, the places where writing takes us ...

[everville340]

An excellent way to honor the past while moving forward in your own Life...

[patrick_vecchio]

Thanks for reading and commenting!