Donna Sprague THIS TOO SHALL PASS “Trash” Trash is big business. I pay a lot a year for people to remove trash from my mother’s house in Attleboro and also here at the Sprague Compound. Things back in the day of the dump were less complicated and more fun. I have a friend whose town on the Cape still has a dump and since it’s a pretty wealthy town, dump diving there can be fun and profitable. Diving in the landfills can get you disease and possibly buck shot in the butt. Trash day at both of my houses is Thursday, and so Wednesday has me scurrying about like a squirrel searching for things no one needs anymore, and secreting out the stuff the husband and son want to keep. Many broken things that I know will stay broken. The good stuff which someone could use is donated to Savers, or passed on to a friend who once said, “Oh I love that skirt, vase, mirror, candle holder... “ Lately I find I save much less stuff than I used to. The husband never met a piece of paper he didn’t want to keep, and the son is sort of a middle of the road trasher, who, from time to time, actually uses some odd obscure saved thing which I had thought would have been better tossed. Not much of a shopper, I find that my parts of the Compound are neater than the rest of the house, but I still have to rid myself of those things I will never use, wear or read EVER. I’m setting up my reading cottage for this year and keeping only the most beautiful and soothing things out there. All things disturbing or conflicting need not apply for a decorations gig. Of course, trash days always remind me that I still have lots of emotional and mind trash which I surely need no more, and that any day is a good day to look within and gather the dreck and toss it. Many times, inner stuff is hard to let go of and tends to cling like duct tape. Jettisoning our dearest held beliefs is the most frightening of all, regardless of which they make us terrified or comfort us, and whether or not they are true or the product of a conspiracy web site. Preconceived notions usually turn all websites into dark omens or a source of light airy wondrous information. Just as a room full of piles of neatly tied up newspapers from back in the 70’s (my friend Judi’s mom had such a room, with paths to get from the kitchen to the living room..) which you will never read again and which have no value but for fireplace lighting, a cluttered mind has less room to work with… kind of like a computer hard drive. Too bad minds don’t come with external hard drives which can save a huge amount of stuff on a little shelf. The more crowded our minds are, the higher the anxiety, lower the memory, and slower the recall. I keep plastic bags in a drawer to put my change in every night. When they get too full, I bring them to the Rockland Credit Union machine and put cash in my account. An external hard drive for the mind would allow me to put the “what if” and “should have” thoughts on the external drive and free up space for all my more creative fun and productive ones. But the mind will not allow itself to be put on a shelf. Just the other day, everything was fine, when my childhood telephone number spontaneously shouted loudly in my mind, which in turn took me on a brief but Technicolor tour of my friends, activities and stress back in the day. Who would think a first grade kid would have dreaded things at five years old? Until someone invents some sort of mind suction device to grab out all the thoughts not currently needed, we are left to our own devices. Will we be led around by our restless minds, which NEVER sleep and interrupt the body’s rest with dreams of giants and buttercups, or will we find our personal version of a trash button? A calendar of events is a nice idea for those things we want to remember, and a list of “to buy” or “to do” takes the pressure off to remember such things once at the market. In my experience, however, there is only one way to stop the incessant mumbling of the mind and that is to ignore it by immediately replacing a not so comfy thought with a sweet one. And it’s not easy, but it’s well worth it.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:10:58 +0000
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