tales from an ordinary world

2002-03-12b

Waiting for the new layers to sink in, trying not to think about work. The voices of Forster and McLennan hold me up, keeping me from sinking in this room, lit by a candle I'd been given around a decade ago. In this new regime, of trying to keep things clean on a more regular than usual basis, it seemed appropriate to actually use the candle rather than just leave it on the shelf. Like my father, like his father, I hoard things. I've mentioned the plastic bags before. Last weekend I flattened some speaker boxes that did nothing more than fill up valuable space in my room, behind a bookcase. Space seems important to me now. Clean, uncluttered space. There are so many objects, so many things I'm keeping "just in case," but never end up using because "I might need it later" - another part of the same family trait. How do I stop this madness ? Where do I start ? The joy of everyday objects comes from using them, not from putting them on a shelf, "for later."