Comments on: Cleaning Out http://arlenegoldbard.com/2007/12/19/cleaning-out/ culture, politics and spirituality Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:08:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Abby Caplin http://arlenegoldbard.com/2007/12/19/cleaning-out/#comment-109218 Abby Caplin Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:39:03 +0000 http://arlenegoldbard.com/2007/12/19/cleaning-out/#comment-109218 Hi Arlene, I've been enjoying your blog and hope all is well! A story.... A few years ago my elderly father was trying to help his partner Sylvia move her stuff to his home, so that they could live together. Both were in their eighties, both had lived through childhood poverty, and neither could throw anything away. Since Sylvia was very willful and independent, she refused to hire movers, and family members (myself included) were enlisted to do the hauling. Everything was moved, except for a large heavy metal filing cabinet filled with old papers. My brother was going to pick it up the next day, so we emptied out the cabinet of its papers, putting them into the only thing handy: large trash bags. (You can see where this is going, can't you?) The next day, the apartment manager came by and dumped the trash bags. The only thing Sylvia was left with was an empty metal cabinet. She lost her family papers, passports, death certificates, all because she had been unable to let go, unable to sort through insignificant from important papers, and because she didn't trust movers. She had everything else, though, including ten huge bottles of fabric softener and starch. Kol hakavod, keep up the good work! Abby Hi Arlene,

I’ve been enjoying your blog and hope all is well!
A story….

A few years ago my elderly father was trying to help his partner Sylvia move her stuff to his home, so that they could live together. Both were in their eighties, both had lived through childhood poverty, and neither could throw anything away. Since Sylvia was very willful and independent, she refused to hire movers, and family members (myself included) were enlisted to do the hauling. Everything was moved, except for a large heavy metal filing cabinet filled with old papers. My brother was going to pick it up the next day, so we emptied out the cabinet of its papers, putting them into the only thing handy: large trash bags. (You can see where this is going, can’t you?)

The next day, the apartment manager came by and dumped the trash bags. The only thing Sylvia was left with was an empty metal cabinet. She lost her family papers, passports, death certificates, all because she had been unable to let go, unable to sort through insignificant from important papers, and because she didn’t trust movers. She had everything else, though, including ten huge bottles of fabric softener and starch.

Kol hakavod, keep up the good work!

Abby

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