The more we have, the more we tend to forget what we have. I should create a directory to my house. But then I'd always have to remember where that directory was when I wanted to find something I was looking for...
Forgotten Things
This has happened to you I'm sure. You're cleaning a closet or sifting through stuff when you find something that you had forgotten about. Has it been there for months? Years? Decades? What is it? Forgotten treasure? Stuff that you just set aside for later? Now that later has come, what next?
It's more than a matter of wants or needs. What we need later might not always be apparent. Sometimes serendipitous, the truly useful found item is more anomalous than something that happens on a regular basis. More often than not we come across that which has been hidden away only to examine it briefly with bemusement as we ask ourselves why.
"Why do I still have this thing?" is a question that has likely crossed your mind as often as it has mine. That is, unless you are a methodical keeper or disposer who understands future value as much as what will eventually become a useless bit of saved detritus. To some extent I admire that person. And yet that person might be cursed by the archivist of history who hopes to run across accumulations of objects of the past. The explorer of the past would likely rather explore attics or basements than layers of refuse in a landfill.
My house is not a museum, a library, or some collection open to public perusal. However, in some sense, it is--or might be someday in the same way as my mother's home seemed to be after her passing. Family members sorted and culled through the possessions she left behind. We found things that we'd forgotten about as well as things we never realized were there. Strangers came into the house to buy whatever we could sell. We had yard sales and took things to resale shops. We kept a few things to take home to our own collections and then donated or trashed the rest of it.
Life goes on and we collect and we forget about many of the items in that collection. We buy things, receive things, and sometimes we find things that we had forgotten about. Sometimes what we find is a delightful surprise while other things remind us of past disappointments and failures. Those latter things might be worth forgetting. There is so much to remember in most of our lives that much becomes easy to forget. Remembering the right things might not be as easy as it would seem it should be.
Forgotten things are just another part of life. Sadder still is when we forget people. Or maybe another way to look at it is that we just stop remembering. If we don't remember those whose paths we've crossed in our lives then how can we forget them? People are not "things" to be forgotten. Once we've cleared the clutter of friends, family, or others who have played a role in shaping who we have become then we have little left than a houseful of forgotten things. Things cannot console us like someone who cares about us.
What do you usually do with something that you find that you had forgotten that you owned? Do you adhere to the advice of getting rid of things that you haven't used or thought about for a year or more? Who is the last person you called or visited that you hadn't had contact with in many years?
