So, Susie and I have this new deal. Every Saturday by noon, we each have to put 10 items on the dining room table. The ten items are things we’re ready to get rid of. If I see something cool in Susie’s pile, I need to find something else to get rid of. And if I miss the noon deadline, I need to find another 5 items.
We’ve done it for two weeks now, and have gotten rid of 50 items. Well, by “got rid,” I mean we now have a big pile of stuff on the dining room table, and more in a box in the hallway, and we also have a list of places to go to donate the stuff. But it’s a start.
Some of my items this week were books, and I took them to Cliff’s Used Book Store in Pasadena. They’re really surly there. Plus, they wouldn’t buy back most of the books, even a Pulitzer Prize- winning novel by Owen Butler. I mean, come on!
Anyway, I got rid of about 12 books, and only bought 7 more. Two were these great old collections by Art Buchwald. He’s stupendous, and if you notice that I start to write a little more like him, kindly laugh.
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
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