First-World Problems...

Remember those interminable fundraising programs your kids would be lassoed into by pretty much everyone and everything in their schools? Band and orchestra and soccer cleats and extra softballs and 600 pencil drawing sets and new basketball nets and cocaine for the teachers' lounges and....

The worst was the wrapping paper. We now have enough paper for the next 300 years, even assuming that we give gifts for National Maple Syrup Day and Executive Assistant Day and Groundhog Day and Helen Keller Day and Pi Day and Festivus and Talk Like A Pirate Day and...

But I can't quite be ruthless enough to toss it out! What if we need it?

And that exposes the larger issue of my (and probably your) inability to throw stuff away. As we get older and collect the stuff from our departed parents, we are confronted by the difficulty of letting go the past. How can I throw away six sweaters my grandmother knitted for my father? Never mind that she wasn't very good at it, and he humored her by actually wearing them! Or my grandfather's diploma? What about my dad's wallet or my mom's keys (to a house that is long gone)?

People are weird!

posted by CBD at 02:00 PM

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