La La Land - Charming. This movie is the perfect blend of a modern yet timeless love story and old fashioned musical. And it's set in Los Angeles, along the streets, with that marvelous California light and color. I'm not going to say anything more about it, because it was simply that delightful.
Ruminating - Now back to reality where I am in an epic battle with memories in the form of memorabilia: cards, letters and papers of all sorts and from many eras. The corner of the dining room is truly up for grabs through this process which I don't like to call purging, because it's such a harsh and permanent word. I also don't like getting rid of or throwing away - those are just disrespectful to the process and the stuff, which I recycle and shred and give away to good causes. Letting Go is the latest buzzword that has a gentle connotation except when you think of it in terms of you're in a life and death situation at the edge of a mountain holding the hand of the person who will fall if you let go. Who could let go in that situation without being forever psychically damaged? So I don't have a word for what I'm doing, but I have to do it.
I started with 12 large plastic covered boxes. Four are empty now and their contents are largely redistributed throughout the house but not to the basement or attic because I want to be the kind of person who doesn't have things in the basement or attic. As we all know, the attic has long been empty of my stuff, and the basement has been a work in progress.
I'm going to go at it again today with a new simple standard called "Want or Don't Want". The basic criteria are whether I want to see it again, whether I can see the same thing on Facebook (your pictures for example), whether it will enhance future photo albums, and whether it still makes me happy to have it. In the 70s and 80s, there was a LOT of writing passing through snail mail. A LOT! And now I'm dealing. I have to say the mundane isn't as great as the funny, and when I'm old and looking back through this stuff again, or if anyone else ever takes the time to look through it, at least they'll be laughing.
I've been trying to figure out my obsession. I came up with the thing where cards and letters from others validate one and show that they love or loved you. That's true, but how much validation does a person have to have? Some of it is also that I haven't been remembering things, so the cards and letters help me to remember the person and the events. But I still have my calendars! Every single one since I started keeping a little Hallmark Calendar in 7th grade! And the report cards! I think those are important because my dad used to show me his report cards. (I still have them somewhere, and would be able to find them if I wasn't bogged down with forty Christmas cards from everyone let alone birthday cards.) What's more important to me? Report cards or Christmas cards? Or Birthday cards? AAAHHH! I don't know! I can't decide! This process is decisions and decisions are hard!
Enough. I'm going to go read the Sunday paper.
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