Saturday, April 19, 2008

Garage Sale





This is what the garage looks like right now. All this clutter had been sitting inside our closets, untouched, for some years because I was occupied with other things (too lazy to bother with them). Imagine functioning amid all the baggage and the chaos. This is one of those "much too much" syndromes.

When we put them all out this morning I wondered how in heaven's name we were able to accumulate so much discards? Then the following thoughts raced through my mind: how much clothes can one justify in owning? How many pairs of shoes is a fair number to purchase? How many handbags, accessories, and toys will it take to make each of us happy?

Maverick says that beautiful clothing is art--worn art, and is, in fact, an investment. But then she also said that the children in Africa she had interacted with on two separate visits begged for the shirts off their backs because they had nothing, zero, in the way of clothing.

We unloaded them today and as I watched the buyers browse through Maverick's prom dresses, Kitty's football and basketball jerseys, the younger children's tiny clothes, I was flooded with memories that each article of clothing and footwear brought on. They tug at the heart but I convinced myself that memories live in the mind not in things. And so I let them go.

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