Tuesday, March 06, 2007

This Is What I Noticed

Last Sabbath, as I traipsed my parents' room in search of an iron, I noticed a New York Times Magazine sticking out from under a pile of assorted media. I immediately began to wonder how old the issue was. See my mother and father (in this specific case mom is to blame) are notorious packrats. I can remember as a child the scores of photos and magazines that accumulated. We eventually would have marathon thinning sessions and we were never untidy. But still we kept things far longer than they needed to be kept.

And its more than photos or magazines. I have enough clothes to fill a small Salvation Army Thrift Store. The CDs and DVDs might comprise a bargain bin at Best Buys. Plus I have bunches of artifacts I've accumulated from the boys at work that fill up my shelves. Not to mention a small library I intend to read.

But something else I noticed is that I am a packrat of emotions. Both mom and dad do this to some degree. Mom is more capable of regularly shedding herself of the emotions, though she suppresses for a time. Dad suppresses forever and usually explodes at some point. I'm in the middle more towards mom. I'm more able to get my feelings out regularly but then when it gets to the deeper ones they usually explode. I need to get in the habit of letting those go. Maybe if I had I would not be in the situation in which I am now.

No comments: