Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Story of Your Life

I was fixing up the memory on my cellphone the other day, removing people no longer an issue -- HP's doctors, nursing service, home health aides, hospice, supplies mfr.,employer, on and on, a lot of people on the modern equivalent of speed dial --and thought, well, this is interesting, it's a biography in parvo. Another change.

You can see the signposts of your life by seeing who's in cellphone memory, and now I look down my listings, and see son, friends, music connections, art groups, libraries, only one or two doctors, one pharm, much more peaceful sort of environment now. The electronic version of a sociogram.

Or your home desk. When I had the petcare business many years ago, where I visited homes to take care of pets, I would often do a quick drawing of the client's desk, since most of my clients also worked at home, and sometimes give the drawing as a gift. The desk was such an indicator of the person and her life, an indirect portrait of her.

Or the interior of your car. What's in there says a lot about who you are and what you're up to. Or, depending on how neat you are, what you've been up to in recent years...a while back somebody with an out of state plate that shall remain nameless suddenly did a U turn in front of my car on a bridge (!) and I had to stand on the brakes to avoid a collision.

I did avoid it, and as the car stopped abruptly,there was a cascade of items all over me in the front seat. Art materials, petfood, petcare files, spare shoes, rainboots, birding books, binoculars, books for the libe, clothing for the Goodwill,which is where I was headed at the time, water bottle, pens galore. Surprising how many things it unearthed.

Fortunately I had moved my firewood into the trunk before this (long story, apartment dwellers have no wood storage) otherwise I guess I would have been felled by a tree..no firewood in there currently, but you can see, still a rich loose moraine of items to contemplate. Pictures taken a few minutes ago.






Quick, what does the trunk of your car say about you? your desk? we will draw a kind veil over the catchall drawer in your kitchen, full of hammers and nails,and anonymous keys and matches and other such vital stuff. But your trunk, now, there's a bio in the making.

7 comments:

  1. The trunk of my car? A big great zero. All that's in there is a blue plastic sheet on the floor with a puple towel over it and a small rolled white towel to one side. This is where the dogs sit when being transported. I included the colours to try and make it more interesting. I could say what it reveals about me is that I like to be organized !!!

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  2. Well - right now the trunk of our car contains far too many fabric grocery bags; a snow brush that we REALLY hope we won't have to use (hah); a large single curtain destined to be washed and used as a cat-couch cover (no way thrift store finds get brought into our living space until they get washed these days!); and there's a pair of thrifted jeans in there awaiting the same washing. Does dust count?

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  3. A raincoat for when I'm out walking, my bag of stuff which I take to training with my umpire friends (outdoor cushion, tape meaure, skipping ropes, exercise programs), an old pair of trainers waiting to be donated to someone in need of them, the steering wheel lock I don't use.

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  4. My car trunk - cloth grocery bags with my phone # neatly printed on each one in case I leave any behind in the store. A professional emergency medical kit, emergency blanket and towels, shovel (for snow, not in case my skill set has declined) windshield washer fluid, extra tail and headlamp bulbs, extra set of those caps that go over the tire inflation valve. Spare windshield wipers, snow scraper (for the windshield - I live in the north). An umbrella for those few days it rains. OMG - that's me, little Ms. Florence Nightingale. I thought I had retired.

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  5. Sorry, forgot to sign my name, the ready-for-disaster "anonymous" is Jean in Cowtown. Oh, and I forgot something else - an airline travel sick bag. Ya never know....

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  6. In my trunk - various grocery bags, various wraps and hats, three tallit and their bags and numerous kippot for synagogue, prayer books for Friday night and Saturday morning services, books for my Melton class this year and last year, several books I am in the process of reading, miscellaneous papers, my laptop, a random laptop that I thought I could rehab, jumper cables, a sunscreen, a deck of cards and who knows what else!

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  7. Jumper cables, me, too. How could I forget those? Never been used on my 16 year old car, but have given others a boost. One religious item clipped to my sun visor, but does that count as it's not in the trunk proper? And, of course, the spare tire and jack. - Jean in Cowtown

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