Memoir of Stuff

I cannot decide what to write about.  Recently I went to a writing seminar to get inspired.  One thing Alison McGhee (our guru) said was to give yourself ten minutes a day  to write creatively .  So this is my ten minutes.


At the seminar I realized I am ignorant of most things related to writing.  For one, I never thought of "memoir" writing.  Several times that came up so I looked it up.  Here's the definition I liked:


A memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring the checking of facts etc.   


In other words, a memoir doesn't need to be true.  That pretty much fits with what I write here, so I've declared my blog a memoir written in real time.  I suppose there are other words to describe it, some  might even be positive, but memoir works for me so I'm sticking to it.


She also gave us an exercise requiring us to describe an individual by describing those things you associate with the individual.  No personality words.  


Has it been ten minutes yet?  No?  Well,  I must go on then.   I will try to incorporate my new learning.


This morning I was thinking about my mom.  A friend's last parent (dad) recently died and she is busy dealing with the artifacts of her parents' life.  Lots of antiques and I presume other valuables.  So they are dealing with dealers to get rid of the lot.  


When my mom died, we went through her stuff and the conversation went something like this:  "Anyone want the ceramic duck collection?"  Silence.    "How about the thimble collection?  Look there's one from South Dakota! "  More silence.  "Here's a few rosaries.  I think I gave her the one that lit up in the dark.  Anyone need some rosaries?"  Silence.  "Who wants this broken statue of Mary (that's the holy one)?  Silence.  That's when my sister-in-law steps in and takes the statue.  She couldn't bear the thought of it being tossed in the garbage.   And I eventually step  in and take the ducks, the thimbles and the light up rosary.    


Now as I look down the road, knowing that the inevitable will eventually happen with only my daughter to go through my stuff, I realize more and more that my stuff may not be stuff anyone wants.  And certainly it isn't stuff that any dealer would want.  It's time to stop collecting and start weeding.


Anyone want a thimble collection?