Clutter

My line of work allows me to see how much crap the average person accumulates in a lifetime. In many cases, even just accumulation over a shorter time can be staggering. It is often my job to dispose of that accumulation and that duty has hardened me as to such "items."

Needless to say, I now look at my basement and my garage differently. This past weekend I attacked the garage and, as a result, it's much more spacious now. That same weekend Jen and I donated 87 books to the library. 87! How many were I going to read again? Probably none.

I am now on a mission to get rid of everything I can spare. We should all remember that things are just things. Memories matter. Absent memories, things become trash. Take it from someone who facilitates the disposal of things that inspired memories for people who are now gone. Ultimately, it's all just trash. It's merely a function of time.

Although I realize much of the personal property accumulated by people has some special meaning, a simple test should determine whether or not something merits preservation. The test I am attempting to apply is this:

1) Have I searched for it during the past year?
2) If I keep it, do I imagine I will search for it again in the next year?
3) Does it have "special" sentimental value? (merely sentimental is insufficient).

I have had to struggle with some belongings just as anyone would. Items that belonged to my father, items that bring back memories and or were gifts from the departed have been difficult to toss. I am even trying to justify holding on to my father's car. It is a hockey puck on the ice, old, temperamental and expensive to maintain. If it wouldn't cause a riot in the family, I would probably sell it. (I may do just that anyway).

The short of it is that, even though it was my father's car, it is just a car. I remember riding in it to UVA games as a kid. I remember being taken to middle school in the morning and enduring the cold air in lieu of a working defrost. I remember riding in the hatchback all the way to DC.

But, do I need to keep the car to keep those memories? There is only one answer, and it is simply "No."

My biggest weakness has been an unwillingness to throw away anything related to school. In 20 years of school, I have accumulated a small mountain of notes. I have finally taken the step to get rid of it all. I had schoolwork from elementary school, high school, college, law school and the bar exam preparation. Some of those papers remain in my mother's home. Well, it's all going away. Why? Simple: I will never reference those again. I even finally recycled all the cases I printed to research my law review comment.

Much like memories from "things," the notes became a part of me and preservation of the physical manifestation of my education is ultimately meaningless. In fact it could become some vain attempt to preserve or display the work that was done. Trust me, this was not an easy decision for me. Those boxes might as well be filled with a lifetime of blood, sweat and tears.

I do not think I will finish my project for many, many months, but I am determined to keep working at it, room by room and box by box.

In a world where too much plastic seeps into the population by the minute; where not a month goes by without some form of holiday or celebration; and where we are all prone to pack-ratish behavior, I am ready to push back against the tide.

I have not yet missed one thing donated or thrown away and I do not imagine it will happen. It is actually a liberating feeling.

So, ultimately, preservation of a shirt simply because it was purchased for me by my father years ago does little to further his legacy of generosity when it could just as easily clothe someone who truly needs it.

I guess it's time to donate that Tony Gwynn shirt he bought me that I never wore.

Update

... Jacob Year 3 video is being burned to DVDs as I type. I'd like to give a special thanks to Tom for his excellent editing. It really looks professional and came out as a very high quality product. For all who view the videos, this version will have much better cuts, shorter clips, great music and a lot of clever montages. We owe Tommy a big thanks.

... Jacob is doing really well in school and the class is getting back up to full capacity. Many of his friends are back in school from the summer break. He's been very cheerful lately and a joy around the house.

... I have been really thinking through the short story I have developed. I have really been researching effective character development as well as useful tools for making that character resonate with a reader. For one, I am reading Fyodore Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, which places the reader into the mind of a person brilliantly. But, my most inspirational enlightenment came from an otherwise mundane class.

I was at a CLE program when I learned the name for my conceptual goal. That is "cognitive bias." I always discuss paradigms and a large part of my story is perception and perspective. So, I have researched cognitive biases and have picked some to apply to my characters.

A judge actually told a story that illustrated cognitive bias. She discussed how two people can perceive the same events very differently without lying. The axiom that "someone must be lying," therefore, is rarely correct. Instead, the lenses through which we see events are tainted by these biases (whether conscious or unconscious).

I try not to have a "post-modern" or "morality is in the eye of the beholder" perspective, but cognitive bias is very real and it colors everything. I see it in my line of work all the time. I will be exploring this in depth in my story and will probably concentrate most of my writing on that in the coming weeks.

... The Broncos will have a terrible season and every college team I usually follow (CU and UVA) both look to have rough seasons. Therefore, for a one-year trial, the guys and I have decided to adopt a team to save the football season. We will be rooting for the Cal Bears this year. I'm all in! George Carlin once put sports into perspective by saying "you don't leave an opera angry, and the same should apply to sports." I'll still follow my teams, but I'm in on Cal so I can taste a good season. It'll make the otherwise crappy taste of multiple bad seasons go down a little more smoothly.