The Carved Wooden Turtle

20 plus years ago our youngest, Kevin was part of a singing group that went into an old folks home in Fargo to sing a few Christmas Carols. I don’t know if it was a church or school group.

When he came home he showed me a small carved wooden turtle some elderly gentleman had given him in appreciation or something for the singing. I thought that odd. I wondered why? Who else might he have given it to who might have appreciated it more? Didn't he have any children? We moved it with us to Chicago when we moved. I see it in among the “stuff” from time to time.

Now that I am closer to his age (whatever that was) I am beginning to grasp what that act was all about. I don’t think if Kevin had gone back a year later the gentleman would have still been there. I doubt that he had other candidates for his stuff. This shot at immortality (being remembered) was giving away something he knew the attendants at the nursing home were going to throw away anyhow. He hoped he might be remembered positively by this act. It worked.

A few years ago after having been thru the burial and distribution of things left over from aunts and uncles on both sides of the family I have arrived at these conclusions:

• Everything I buy from this day forward will be given away, thrown away or sold at auction.
• Little of what I now own will mean much if anything to my offspring or their wives, they have enough of their own stuff.
• My brothers and sisters don’t want what I have accumulated in stuff.
• The final dumpster will only stacked higher and deeper the longer I keep things.
• If I want to do some good I must give it away now to someone, no matter who, who might value my “stuff” more than I do anymore.

Once when I was in Guatemala I was in a man’s home and admired a woven wall hanging. Big mistake. It went home with me. Mi casa su casa and all the stuff within. I did that with a suitcase a man had in China. I went home with that too.

So, be aware, if you express a positive opinion about anything which I might own, something I am now sort of over with, you will get it by parcel post if I have your address. I have a book collection numbering in the thousands. I have CDs and albums (vinyl) equal to that. I have collectables from all over the world. So, beware. I’m just like that man in Guatemala; I’ve got lots of stuff needing a new home. Watch your mailbox.