It's 9AM.
It’s the thought that counts.
I’ve long been an advocate of giving gifts.
Not so good at getting them though.
I am at a point in my life where minimalism should take over.
I think everyone should reach that stage of life where it’s more about clearing out and cleaning up than getting more.
Check your closets.
Check your drawers.
Where are you going to put it all?
My grandfather was a pack rat.
Part of his depression era mentality growing up with almost never enough.
His philosophy was to keep it all, just in case you might need it.
And when he died, my uncle, aunt and father rented a long dumpster and threw it all away.
A lifetime of news clippings and records and notes and almost eighty years of history tossed in a trash can and hauled off to a landfill.
One of the things they ran across that I thought was neat?
A clipping of me in my teenage modeling debut.
I worked after school at a department store downtown called Cohen’s and they ran weekly ads in the Pine Bluff Commercial.
At one point, I was recruited to show off the new Spring line up of blazers and Duckheads, and my picture went into an ad.
My papaw clipped it and tucked it into a treasure box and never told anyone about it.
Only discovered after he was gone.
And tossed in the trash.
Maybe some future archeologist will uncover it and make up a tale about it, putting clues together from sifted garbage.
I do not want to put that on my kids.
Not the tales of their father being turned legend by an Indiana Jones born five hundred years from today, but cleaning out my closet.
So I try to get rid of stuff.
Donate. Sell. Sometimes trash.
The plan is to go out of the world much like I came into it, screaming, naked and soaking wet.
Fifty years from now, so I have time.
Which is, in itself, sometimes a problem.
Because of Hallmark.
Long ago, I decided to give my children “experiences” instead of “Stuff.”
And I wanted more of the same.
Except
#10, the ten year old, likes to give too.
He got me a coffee mug for my birthday last year.
He knew I liked The Mandalorian and picked one up.
I use it every day, and I see him notice me using it.
For Valentine’s Day, he got me an Office Mug.
And he will see me use it every day.
I won’t tell him about getting rid of two older mugs in the cabinet, to make room for the one new one.
Those weren’t gifts from him anyway.
But I thought his thought was well done.
Because a gift that can be used, and re used and used again is akin to an experience.
Hell, pouring the dark nectar of the gods into a gift every day might even be considered an experience.
And that’s a thought that makes me smile.
I hope you find a reason to smile today.
Now get after it.
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Thanks for newsletters, I'm to old and impatient to go through all the steps of book funnel. I did figure out and worked couple times, now just write down name of book go to kindle either buy, or save.
I do wish the books told if they are available in audio. I like to listen when I wake up in middle of the night. Greg
Chris,
My dad saved pictures and articles about my playing basketball in high school. I did not find them until he was gone. I have a picture with the caption "Sidney Moncrief tries to block Matt's shot". We were up around the rim. Frank Lightfoot wrote most of the articles.
Matt Lovelace