Victory

I have long been loathe to throw anything away. Just as far back as I can remember, I have kept just about everything, regardless of how likely it is that there will be either immediate or eventual need of the thing. I'm just terribly afraid that some distant day will call for the thing, and it will be gone, never to be found again. I will be then be as lost as the thing I fruitlessly wish to have back. Of course, it seldom happens that this imagined scenario comes to pass, but when it does...

Just recently, I have experienced certain victories in this area that encourage me to go on in enduring the inconveniences of near-fatal clutter at every turn. No, these victories do not pertain to the filing of taxes or anything quite so practical, but they certainly are important in their own way. Surely when I tell you, you will agree that I am right to throw away nothing and shred nothing. It will either be that or you will sigh, slump your shoulders and hope that I will change my ways down the line anyway. Don't count on it.

I happened to perform in a sketch (or, as I am rankled to hear people sometimes say, a 'skit') for church not so long ago. I played the role of 'stagehand', and appeared on stage for some time bearing cue cards which were employed for comic effect. After two performances, they were seemingly of no further value. Naturally, I lugged them home, heavy and cumbersome as they were. The fellow participant who made them (and bemoaned their considerable expense) was surprised that I would do so.

I wish I could say that I anticipated the extra performances that would render them necessary again. Rather, I just vaguely figured they might be handy for some unspecific purpose. I saw myself using them as scrap, perhaps. Maybe they could be tinder in a future campfire. Maybe I could make a little fort of them for underprivileged tots. Maybe I could lay them down on the carpet to prevent stains in the execution of an oil painting that I have yet to develop any interest in or talent for painting. These were thoughts that flitted around in my mind. As it was, the cards needed not be repurposed, and I need not waver in my commitment to saving everything and evading the label of 'hoarder'.