Monday, October 18, 2010
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Random Life Lesson
or
Things I Have Learned at Garage Sales
or
Things I Have Learned at Garage Sales
I'm one of these people who has a lot of books, and who consciously or not has imagined an audience (possibly with a close resemblance to God) browsing through my collection and approving: this is clearly a deep collection, the collection of a reader and a thinker. Freud meets Marx, the desire taking material form.
Except, and this is something I realized this weekend while helping a good friend at a garage sale: there is no Cosmic Librarian Accounting at the end. Eventually, I won't be here to read my books, and most likely they will be thrown out, the bulk of them, once my near and dear pick out a few titles. Because the book table was the least visited table of all at the garage sale. Three separate people asked me how much the bottle of WD-40 went for (it wasn't for sale; we were using it); people asked to buy the plastic cups (also for our use, not for sale). Kant, on the other hand, was a drug on the market.
What was sort of nice was that people kept asking, "Who lived here?" The very miscellaneous and interesting collection of artifacts bespoke people who had lives of the mind, who valued art and science and literature (and math and philosophy and history, and LOTS and LOTS of science). And I was glad that people recognized that, at the same time that, since I have some anal-retentive cultural-capital hoarding tendencies myself, how beside the point, finally, the acquisition is.
Except, and this is something I realized this weekend while helping a good friend at a garage sale: there is no Cosmic Librarian Accounting at the end. Eventually, I won't be here to read my books, and most likely they will be thrown out, the bulk of them, once my near and dear pick out a few titles. Because the book table was the least visited table of all at the garage sale. Three separate people asked me how much the bottle of WD-40 went for (it wasn't for sale; we were using it); people asked to buy the plastic cups (also for our use, not for sale). Kant, on the other hand, was a drug on the market.
What was sort of nice was that people kept asking, "Who lived here?" The very miscellaneous and interesting collection of artifacts bespoke people who had lives of the mind, who valued art and science and literature (and math and philosophy and history, and LOTS and LOTS of science). And I was glad that people recognized that, at the same time that, since I have some anal-retentive cultural-capital hoarding tendencies myself, how beside the point, finally, the acquisition is.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Okay, so this just randomly amused me.
I was treated to the carnival of human behavior that is a garage sale this weekend. I'll write about the dumpster divers that came back today, but my favorite was this guy named Michelet. He was going to pick up some furniture from my friend's house, but he needed his wife's okay before picking it up. So he hands my friend the phone and tells her that his wife isn't getting what the furniture is like so could she please describe it.
Friend: Hello?
Michelet's wife: Hello?
Friend: Hello?
Michelet's wife: Hello?
Friend: What would you like to know?
MW: What is your name?
Friend: [tells name]
MW: How old are you?
Friend: [somewhat puzzled by request for age, since they're supposed to be discussing a bedroom set. Nevertheless, she provides the information]
MW: Are you a lesbian?
Friend: Michelet, I think you need to go over this with your wife.
I was treated to the carnival of human behavior that is a garage sale this weekend. I'll write about the dumpster divers that came back today, but my favorite was this guy named Michelet. He was going to pick up some furniture from my friend's house, but he needed his wife's okay before picking it up. So he hands my friend the phone and tells her that his wife isn't getting what the furniture is like so could she please describe it.
Friend: Hello?
Michelet's wife: Hello?
Friend: Hello?
Michelet's wife: Hello?
Friend: What would you like to know?
MW: What is your name?
Friend: [tells name]
MW: How old are you?
Friend: [somewhat puzzled by request for age, since they're supposed to be discussing a bedroom set. Nevertheless, she provides the information]
MW: Are you a lesbian?
Friend: Michelet, I think you need to go over this with your wife.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Today's outfit! A pair of plaid Ralph Lauren men's shorts that I bought for the spousal unit back in 1994! One of his t-shirts (Hanes, stretched out neck)! Forget boyfriend jeans: I embrace the entire wardrobe! It is an entire backup wardrobe for me when I'm too heavy to fit into my own clothes. My resourcefulness knows no bounds.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
So. Ten years. And everything about then is still recent to me.
It occurs to me that there are relatively few poems or passages that speak well to the death of a parent: the one that occurs to me soonest is To the Lighthouse, which I know I've quoted before.
But anyway. Perhaps no quote today, perhaps just to remember with love, whose memory is always for a blessing, and just a prayer, the prayer:
It occurs to me that there are relatively few poems or passages that speak well to the death of a parent: the one that occurs to me soonest is To the Lighthouse, which I know I've quoted before.
But anyway. Perhaps no quote today, perhaps just to remember with love, whose memory is always for a blessing, and just a prayer, the prayer:
Glorified and sanctified be God's great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.
May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.
May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.
He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.