One Man's Trash...

My helper, Marilyn, was here today, and we continued to cull through books. I would find myself stunned sometimes with a particular volume which I had zero memory of. That's happened from time to time with clothes -- where I feel if someone held up a sweater or a book and asked me if it were mine, I would say no, but it is.

So we had a whole carton of books to put out on the street and a smaller box to send to my friend Trish who has a very active book club. She brings my books to the club meeting and so I feel that with all those people, every book will find someone who wants it.

I was thinking that I could probably be harsher -- even though I've got rid of a lot. Maybe in a year, I'll go through them all again.

Marilyn, my helper, had taken a half-dead plant out in a grocery store shopping bag and put it in the trash. She later saw this plant retrieved from the garbage and sitting on someone's doorstep. Of course, I had this pang of jealousy -- and guilt -- maybe I should have tried harder to grow this plant, but I didn't want it anymore, and as Marilyn aptly pointed out, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

I became very aware, especially today, of how many wonderful books I have that I have not read. I remember reading somewhere that when we buy the book, we're not buying the book, but we're attempting to buy the time to read the book. I think that's what I was trying. I do love to read, but I find I must really concentrate to make the time to do it. Well, when I come upon a page-turner, I don't have any trouble making the time and will do little else in non-work hours than read the book.

So next time Marilyn comes, we have more books to cull, and a whole lot of paper to shred. I don't think we've shredded paper in a number of tax years and now that 2010 taxes are a memory, getting rid of the back up for some past earlier years seems appropriate.  We will also swap out summer clothes for winter. When we did the reverse in November, I was really strict and gave away a bag or two of clothes. I feel as if there's way more leaving this apartment than coming in, and yet there's so much more to give away.