Day 72: Today is Closure Day. The book suggests you call up your kindergarten and tell them you have left your favorite toy there, and that you need it for your psychological health. I sleep with a Snoopy I have had since 1979. I most certainly did not leave anything behind in my kindergarten classroom. It’s not my style. I don’t really do Closure. Or Letting Go. I leave the door open. I hold on. It’s my nature.
The idea of just “letting go” is foreign to me. I am the girl that saves everything. Everything. Exhibit A. My mother made my dad get rid of this nasty blue bathrobe when I was eight or nine. And I loved it. So I saved it and wore it for another year or so… Eventually it was in pieces, and it had to be thrown out. And I saved the belt.
(Strange side note, there was a short-lived sitcom Day By Day on circa 1988, I loved that show and the teenage son always wore a blue bathrobe. He was so cute, I just knew he’d love me! And then later he played Greg in all the Very Brady movies…)
Exhibit B. Deeper in my trunk I find this little gem. From an old friend on a visit home from California. This is a pretty fair indication of what 1998 looked like.
I still keep a lot of things, but when I moved out of the house at the beach I learned that stuff was just “stuff.” The memories I have of the people that have touched my life are no more or less real by virtue of my having a shoebox full of cocktail napkins and movie tickets. That having been said, I was gifted recently a box of knick-knacks and items I had left behind. I was grateful that Jer had saved them all these years.
In that box was Exhibit C. Folger Shakespeare Library’s production of Taming of the Shrew, circa 1991, they handed out these buttons. This one makes me the happiest. Unlike Lucentio, I still “burn” and occasionally “pine,” but I no longer feel as though I will “perish” without these objects of my desire.
Excitement on the side 
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To see thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more nearly… Day by day…. :)
“Oh dear lord, these things i pray” – somebody had to do it…
I do not recall “Burn Pine Perish” – but i do remember “Take thine booty to the convent”. That may not be an exact quote ;) This is one area where i have some moderation. I will ruthlessly get rid of many things, but i do retain some keepsakes. Moving a lot helps you trim the fat…
“Deeper in my trunk I find this little gem.” I bet you do
I still don’t know where you get it, since i don’t hold onto anything (well, there was roadbear, but even that I gave to Scott. Maybe yours is a reaction to my tossing everything that isn’t currently in use. My mother always says that old things, and particularly photographs, make her sad. Or you’re just a nutbag who hoards! Or somewhere in between, just you. I think it’s cool that you can remember everything, with or without the momentos…as my dad says, “I can’t remember sh-t.” :-) I take after him.
I remember that button. I also remember performing at the Folger. (Much Ado About Nothing.)
I was a hanger on to stuff for a while. But what stopped me was 1: watching my mom hold onto magazines from 1988. I go and I find stuff all over the house that I say, “Mom, can we please burn these?” There’s also the computer that uses 5 inch floppies that she keeps because, “It still works perfectly well.” Then every time I watch episodes of Hoarders, I think, “Don’t let that become you!” It’s very frightening to me, because I am Clutter Woman. But I’m proud that Sammie brings my old baby blanket to school for naptime (sans the sateen edging that I wore off at a young age) . I gotta hold onto SOME things.
I still have that button too!