What Are You Saving it For?

Friends of ours are doing a BIG move. They've been in their house for longer than we were in the townhouse before our big move. And they are downsizing so it's even more of a sort and sort and sort than ours was. And ours was a lot.

It made me think about our move again and the things that I discovered we had that I had forgotten about. Things that I put away in a safe place for storage. Or things that just got pushed further and further back in the closet when new things came in. Things that I thought, "Oh I love this!" when I saw them again but then had to think, "Well, I thought I did." Because obviously if it was packed away for a decade or more then I didn't love it all that much.

I've mentioned our friend that does the radio show. He was talking about the music he picks and that he's kind of bummed because he used a lot of his favorites in the first 40 or so shows. He'd have doled them out a little more judiciously if he had realized how many shows he was going to do.

But that's the thing, he had no idea how many he was going to do. Would it still be fun at 100 shows? It's a lot of work, he picks clips from movies or TV shows to sprinkle in to each episode, plus the songs themselves, plus his bumpers talking about the songs. Right now he's enjoying it, but for how long? And what a real bummer it would have been if he had been saving his favorites for a really special episode and have it never come.

There was a quote making the rounds on Facebook a few years ago that was a sort of mangled version of the Hunter S. Thompson quote: "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Holy Shit! What a Ride!"

The one on Facebook shifted it around a bit to added chocolate in one hand and a martini (or wine) in the other hand and you were sliding into heaven. But mostly the same sentiment. Just plagiarism with flair.

There was also a movement for awhile around eating off the good china. It's simple advice that you can apply every day. Stop saving your good stuff for "some day." Today is someday! Tomorrow is someday! Yesterday was someday! EVERY DAY IS SOMEDAY! So use the good dishes. Burn the pretty candles. Wear the fancy dress. Put on the good jewelry. Eat the candy. All of those things that you have been saving, stop saving them.

Years ago when I was doing continuing education for my massage therapy license I did a seminar from the Institute for Brain Potential. The speaker told the story about the grasshopper and the ant. The one where the ant worked all summer to store food and prepare for the winter and the grasshopper just played and frolicked and did nothing. So when winter comes the grasshopper has to beg the ant to take care of him. The moral of the story is supposed to be, be like the ant. Always planning for the future. The speaker said we should all think about being like the grasshopper. Enjoy summer while it's summer and stop worrying so much. After all he ended up just fine.

Now, I will say that I think you need to do both. I mean, be an ant but don't be an ANT and be a grasshopper but not so much that you have to rely on the kindness of strangers to not starve. Use the good plates, but don't smash them in the fireplace when the meal is over.

And maybe once every few years sort your house like you're thinking about moving so you can find all of your good stuff again.