My daughter will be moving into her first apartment soon. She is a person who becomes attached to everything. But recently she told me that if she isn’t using it she’s not keeping it. Those were words I never thought I’d hear. Our conversations about possessions usually finish with the two of us saying to each other, “You have too much clutter.” We are both right.
With Peter Walsh as my clutter guru, I do have a list of possessions that I continually revise. It is a list that I have in my mind. I hope to leave my children a list of books that I hope they read in their lifetime. I want the list to be short so that they are not overwhelmed. The list will contain five book titles or perhaps three. The book titles that I list are either a book that so moved me that I hope they will read it or a book that might give them insight into the individual that also happened to be their mother.
As of 5/18/09 the list is; 1. Away by Amy Bloom, 2. The Reader by Bernard Schlink, 3. Fortune’s Rocks by Anita Shreve, 4. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread by Don Robertson and 5. The Bright Forever by Lee Martin.
So even though I have more PEZ dispensers than one person ever needs to have, I do have an uncluttered reading list that I never let grow too long. It’s a start.
—Janet
Read it or Weep 