Cleaning up my life
Saturday, 2 April 2016 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carose59The Truth Is In Here*
-:- -:- -:- -:-
Many years ago, after Twin Peaks ended, I noticed there was going to be a new show on staring David Duchovny. It looked interesting, so I started taping it in the bedroom while Pat and I were watching whatever we were watching in the living room. I didn't mention this to Pat.
When April came, I took my spring vacation. I brought out the many tapes I'd been surreptitiously making the last six or so months and I said to Pat, "I've been taping this show, it's the thing Denise Bryson's in." (That was Duchovny's name on Twin Peaks.) And I stuck a tape in.
After each tape ended, Pat would ask excitedly, "Are there more?" until, sadly, there were no more. We were hooked.
And The X-Files was big. There was lots of stuff out there: books and magazines and T-shirts and lunch boxes and zines and I-don't-know-what-all, and Pat bought as much of it as she could find.
I've told the story of how I got rid of most of the T-shirts. That only left me with half a dozen or so three-ring binders bursting at the seams with newspaper and magazine clippings, and scripts, and trading cards. And some books. And some other stuff that I'm not sure what or where it is.
And I wanted to get rid of it.
My love for The X-Files passed rather quickly. Pat's never did. We would drive to the mall and I would go into the bookstore and buy any magazine with anything about the show on the cover. We went to Media*West and Pat would buy everything she could find.
I've been trying to get rid of things. I kept thinking I should offer this stuff to the fans I know, but that didn't work out so well when I offered the T-shirts, and T-shirts don't cost much to mail.
I have a good friend who has started watching the show with her kids, and they're excited about it, so I offered the stuff to her. She accepted and seems really happy about it. I've given her the books already, and she said her daughter took them immediately.
Today I spent the morning taking the three-ring binders out of the bookcase and cleaning them up. Now they're on the shelf next to the front door, waiting to go to work Monday morning and I have a nice, clean, empty shelf on the bookcase in the dining room.
One of the things I found were two binders full of scripts. I wasn't sure they were something my friend would be interested in, so I gave her call this morning.
I told her about the stuff I had for her and she pointed out that this stuff could be worth some money someday.
That's true. That would be a good reason to hang onto it. But I have better reasons to give them away.
First, I don't think I'd be any good at the whole hanging-onto-stuff-and-selling-it thing. Second, there's no guarantee.
But most importantly, it goes against my life's philosophy. I think people should be happy; I like to see them happy, I like to be a part of it. To me it seems like a big waste to hang onto something I don't want, let it take up space in my house, in the hopes selling it when it could be making somebody happy right now. Happiness today makes more sense than maybe-money tomorrow.
And I have clean shelf in my dining room bookcase. It's a win-win.
*Pretty much every magazine cover in the mid-nineties.
-:- -:- -:- -:-
Many years ago, after Twin Peaks ended, I noticed there was going to be a new show on staring David Duchovny. It looked interesting, so I started taping it in the bedroom while Pat and I were watching whatever we were watching in the living room. I didn't mention this to Pat.
When April came, I took my spring vacation. I brought out the many tapes I'd been surreptitiously making the last six or so months and I said to Pat, "I've been taping this show, it's the thing Denise Bryson's in." (That was Duchovny's name on Twin Peaks.) And I stuck a tape in.
After each tape ended, Pat would ask excitedly, "Are there more?" until, sadly, there were no more. We were hooked.
And The X-Files was big. There was lots of stuff out there: books and magazines and T-shirts and lunch boxes and zines and I-don't-know-what-all, and Pat bought as much of it as she could find.
I've told the story of how I got rid of most of the T-shirts. That only left me with half a dozen or so three-ring binders bursting at the seams with newspaper and magazine clippings, and scripts, and trading cards. And some books. And some other stuff that I'm not sure what or where it is.
And I wanted to get rid of it.
My love for The X-Files passed rather quickly. Pat's never did. We would drive to the mall and I would go into the bookstore and buy any magazine with anything about the show on the cover. We went to Media*West and Pat would buy everything she could find.
I've been trying to get rid of things. I kept thinking I should offer this stuff to the fans I know, but that didn't work out so well when I offered the T-shirts, and T-shirts don't cost much to mail.
I have a good friend who has started watching the show with her kids, and they're excited about it, so I offered the stuff to her. She accepted and seems really happy about it. I've given her the books already, and she said her daughter took them immediately.
Today I spent the morning taking the three-ring binders out of the bookcase and cleaning them up. Now they're on the shelf next to the front door, waiting to go to work Monday morning and I have a nice, clean, empty shelf on the bookcase in the dining room.
One of the things I found were two binders full of scripts. I wasn't sure they were something my friend would be interested in, so I gave her call this morning.
I told her about the stuff I had for her and she pointed out that this stuff could be worth some money someday.
That's true. That would be a good reason to hang onto it. But I have better reasons to give them away.
First, I don't think I'd be any good at the whole hanging-onto-stuff-and-selling-it thing. Second, there's no guarantee.
But most importantly, it goes against my life's philosophy. I think people should be happy; I like to see them happy, I like to be a part of it. To me it seems like a big waste to hang onto something I don't want, let it take up space in my house, in the hopes selling it when it could be making somebody happy right now. Happiness today makes more sense than maybe-money tomorrow.
And I have clean shelf in my dining room bookcase. It's a win-win.
*Pretty much every magazine cover in the mid-nineties.