My Precious Things

At first, I wasn’t sure how to answer this - so many of my possessions bring me joy. My piano is one beloved thing. My little container garden is another, as are my cookbooks and kitchen. But then I thought – hmmm, I have lived without each of these things for many, many years of my life. I had next to nothing in college (I mean, what fits in a dorm room? Laundry basket and a mini fridge? Certainly not a whole kitchen!) Clearly, I can live without these items – I have empirically proven this is so.

So then - I just thought of 3 things I’ve never been without since college – the 3 things I always find a way to have – the 3 things that I would choose (and have chosen) over food, or clothes, or (gulp) beer, if it came down to pennies in the wallet. And here they are, in no special order.

#1 – Gym Membership

There was this one time, in Australia, when I decided I was just too poor to maintain a gym membership, so I didn’t get one. I instantly, and I mean within two weeks, gained 20 pounds. I was pretty miserable, and as soon as I returned home, to the gym I went. It would seem that I literally cannot live without a gym membership - my heart would give out on me in short order. My evil metabolism has me trapped that way, damn the bastard.

#2 – Library Card

This is sort of cheating, because what I actually mean is I can’t live without books. I go through withdrawal and start reading cereal boxes and Nutrition Facts when I am without a book to read. I never buy them anymore – they were overtaking our house. So now I take a monthly trip to the library to collect my goodies. It’s like shopping, only free. (And yes, on occasion I have absentmindedly slapped down my credit card at the checkout desk, only to look down at a bemused librarian giving me a raised-eyebrow stare over her glasses.)

#3 – My Computer

My photos are on my computer. My poems, stories, lyrics are all in my computer creative writing file – I just can’t write anything in longhand. I still have my favorite college papers in a folder, and my grad school thesis is backed up on a couple of computers. I write my blog entries on my computer, my one guaranteed daily creative act. Computers let me email friends who would otherwise have long been lost to me. I look up directions, watch funny YouTube videos, read my news, find recipes, google for information. I create Christmas letters, organize our budget, and lately, I’ve started playing online video games with some girlfriends of mine who live in other states – we actually talk on headsets and everything (it is really fun. None of us are gamers, really, so we all are equally bad, and have an excellent time stumbling into each other and blowing each others’ heads off, usually by accident.) When my husband travels abroad, we talk over free internet software. It would be like dying to be cut off from all of these precious things.

That’s it. My list. There you go. Peace and materialistic love to all of you - G