carlin and stuff

I was thinking about you today George. And about stuff. And how when I was struggling as a single mom, or the primary bread winner, accumulating more stuff used to make me feel better, more secure, and it would temporarily stave of the fear and anxiety of walking the sword's edge between milk for the kids or busfare for work.

As I slowly dug myself out of the debt hole, I began to notice that the volume of newly acquired stuff had decreased but the value of the new stuff had logarithmically increased. But I still had ALL the other stuff too.

When I moved out of the place on Regent it took an entire semi moving truck, and the piano was moved separately, to a 3 bedroom townhouse on Lothian.I thought I had swept quite a bit of stuff away.

A year and a half later I was moving again and seriously downsizing to a 2 bedroom apartment for Mur and I and that was an eye opener. By the time I was done giving stuff away and filling both the loras trash bins - twice - it took only 2 trips with the step van to move our much reduced pile of stuff.

By this time I was starting a new single life once again and found that I wasn't trying to stave of the heartbreak by picking up so much new stuff.

So when I moved 2 years later to Forget Street I still had about the same amount of stuff plus the oak farm table, a computer and a renewed relationship with my 2nd husband.

On Forget St. I got some new kitchen stuff and grew a jungle of plants. The 2nd attempt at my 2nd marriage failed dismally and once he was gone I started tossing more stuff. Out with the old?

The move downtown did not require much sweeping but when I bought my condo a year later, I decided enough with the stuff. Appliances, furniture, knick knacks, bric-a-bracs and never used glassware, as well a closet full of clothes that didn't fit and about 60 boxes of books went by the boards. I find that almost strange now since I was actually moving into a bigger space.

And now I've been in my condo for 7 years. The storage room is fairly full, but I must say it's mostly my roommate's stuff and camping gear. Most of the new stuff have been gifts and I have started to collect some original art. I still have a couple of boxes worth of bric-a-brac but there are memories attached to them - they aren't just stuff. Hopefully in the next year or so my shelves will get built and that will give me a place to display them all together (and keep away some of the dust).

So now I'm working on ORGANIZING the stuff I have left. Arts supplies and crafting materials, sewing doodads and the books galore that are perched on every flat and some not so flat surfaces in my room. Need to get the luggage to the storeroom and sort out the mishmash on the dresser top. Then it's clear the rest of the closet time and a trip through the tickle trunk.

So thank you George for words to live by, we miss you.