Monday, May 25, 2015

Stuff

Shutterfly has offered to send me 101 pictures for free.  I do love pictures. And these are free. The question, of course, is what would I do with them?

I could make collages.

I could put them in frames.

I could shove them in the drawers that are already stuffed with pictures - ones that were taken before all of our pictures were online.

And so now I've spent quite a few minutes trying to decide what I'm going to do with something that I don't own, but that I could own; that I don't need, but that I might want.

Why does Shutterfly want to send me stuff?  And what's wrong with me if I don't want free stuff? My kids are much better at this than I.  For years I have kept their childhood tchochkes (knick-knacks, trinkets), and every so often I try to convince them to take them.  The truth is that they don't want them.  Well, actually, my daughter is happy knowing that her tchochkes are safely tucked away in boxes in our basement, but my son really has no interest in any of them.  (I still have some of his - maybe he'll change.)

Sometimes I have this same struggle when I think about making something - a quilt or a sculpey figurine (the perfect example of a tchochke). There's a responsibility that comes with making things. Something isn't in the world, and then you make it, and it is in the world.

Cancer connection?  I have to be sure to tell my kids that I am not my stuff.  That when I die, they shouldn't worry about not wanting to keep things that I have made or things that I have treasured. The parts of our relationship that they choose to carry forward in their own lives will be totally up to them.

1 comment:

  1. Gina - thank you for these insightful, honest and clever posts. You give me a lot to think about. Also - do you have any extra room in your basement for my kids' tchochkes?

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