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Stuff

June 15, 2008 11:48 PM

had a conversation with a friend today in which we discussed how there was way too much stuff in our lives. I may or may not move when my lease ends in September. One of the biggest thing weighing against moving is that I have so much stuff. None of it is really valuable or even emotionally significant, but there's a fucking lot of it. And that got me thinking: what stuff would I save if my apartment was burning down and I could only save a few things. So I'm making a list. I'm not including things I'd normally carry, anyway, like the Blackberry or my wallet because that's just dumb. And I'm not including my cats because, I don't know, I'm just not--of course I'd save them.

  1. Sarah. Sarah is my 1997 Gibson SG. It's red, and it fucking rocks. It is not named, surprisingly enough, after some girl I once liked. It's actually named after a girl I didn't know very well at all, but she was really nice and I liked the name. Anyway, I'd save the guitar for several reasons. First, while it wasn't my first guitar, it's the guitar on which I really learned to play well. While it took me a little while to get used to, it's not the guitar I measure all others against. In this apartment right now, there are three electric guitars, one bass, and two acoustic. Out of all of them, Sarah is the one I'd miss the most. It's the only I can never see myself selling or replacing. It'll be with me forever, even if the rest of my life burns down.
  2. Drawings and posters. Maybe I'm cheating here, but I'm thinking of some very specific things. First, a Smashing Pumpkins concert poster someone gave me sometime. I actually have no idea where it came from or who gave it to me, but it's awesome. Second, a Return of the Jedi poster that's in Greek that my friend Lauren brought back for me from, well, Greece. Third, a tall, narrow drawing of a tree that my friend Karen made for me. When I have a real house, I'm going to frame them all and put them up in some prominent place, and it'll be awesome.
  3. My laptop. Duh. Even if everything else is gone, I'm going to need a laptop to blog and, you know, stay connected to people. PH and I were having a conversation once where she mentioned to me that she could see herself being happy living off the grid on a farm somewhere with no connection to the outside world but a landline phone. That might be well and good for her, but it makes no sense to me. I've often heard people remark that they feel trapped or confined by their cell phones because they feel like they are always connected to other people or something. I guess I understand why someone might feel that way, but I don't feel that way at all. I love the feeling of knowing that my friends are family are only a few buttons away, and vice versa. And the internet's clearly the best communication medium ever, and so a computer is essential. I'd take the laptop over the desktop because, even though I got the cheapest laptop I could find, it's still way faster than my four-year-old desktop.
  4. My dad's flag. My dad fought in the Korean War, so when he died, his coffin was draped in an American flag. The last time I was home, I asked my mom if I could have it, so I brought it home with me and I put it in one of those triangular flag-holding things. I don't really know why I wanted it or why I'd save it from a fire--it's not like I feel this need to have something of my father's near me. I don't even have a picture of him up in my apartment. But it just seems like something I should take.

And that's pretty much it. I mean, there are a lot of other things I'd like to save--like my clothes and my amp--but I think these four things are the things I'd miss the most if they were gone. And that makes me sort of happy. I mean, I'm definitely someone that gives things too much value based on emotional connections, but it's nice to know that, even if the entire world was burning down, there's more to my life than stuff.



1 Comments


estefanita said:

yay for you. it is hard to narrow things down and i am impressed that you got it down to four. now you can throw everything else out and move with just those four things:)

ps. do you remember the SP t-shirt you gave me? you wore it like everyday? i still have it and while i probably wouldn't run into my buring house for it, it has always managed to remain despite my many "rid yourself of material possesions" phases. can't say as much for my NOFX, NHS cheer, or class of '99 shirts....

June 16, 2008 3:31 PM



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