Jul 23 2008
For a couple of weeks now I’m busy cleaning the house. I started with the basement, which had accumulated a lot of stuff since Alison moved here and even more when I moved in with her. But then I moved up to my office that basically hadn’t been cleaned up in five years. Yes, I know, I’m a slob.
Anyway I threw away many things and brought a couple of car loads of basement crap to the EcoCentre and stuff that was still useful to Le Chaînon.
I also sold three old computers and cables, drives, etc. on Craigslist and Kijiji for a couple of dollars. A Mac I bought 6 years ago for $6000 made me a whopping $40. I hope the new owner will get some use out of it.
It was easy though to part from it since I never used it anymore. I brought it over from the Netherlands to work on a project that required Mac OS 9, but that project is now finished so the computer could go.
But now I’m nearing the finish line and the decisions are getting tougher. What to do with a box full of love letters of past girlfriends? This dates from way back when, when people wrote postcards and real letters instead of e-mail. I only have a couple of postcards from Alison, but I received a ton of e-mails from her. Don’t worry, I’ll keep those, actually I keep all my e-mail.
But I digress. What to do? On one hand it is extremely unlikely I will read them all again, but on the other hand doing so will be a blast from the past, and will certainly bring back —sweet and bittersweet— memories just like photos from that era. Why can I keep the photos and not the letters? What would you do?
I also ‘found’ a box of letters from my father. I glanced through them and found a poem in French he wrote for me. Reading it made me almost cry. It was written when both he and I were in bad break-ups. Here it is, verbatim.
Tu es mon fils aîmé,
du très bon marque Mark.
Moi : seulement ton père,
plutôt ton frère aîné,
qui t’ai fait tant d’misères.
Mais comme au ciel un arc
se lève (fin d’orage)
je te donne en gage
mes intentions (“sous sage”)
de rendre heureuse ta mère,
Marguerite ma chère femme,
de nous deux belle flamme.
Tu m’aideras? “Si, si !”
Merci ! Ton faible père,
qui pour finir la chasse
t’embrasse.Karel.
Rotterdam, ce 25 juillet 1988
That box stays.
Wednesday, 23 July, 2008 @ 17:35
Stays indeed.. I also have a box where I keep letters/mail of importance to me.. From who ever, exs, friends, etc. :)
Wednesday, 23 July, 2008 @ 17:44
Definitely keep the love letters! You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that you have them.
Wednesday, 23 July, 2008 @ 18:42
My friend D. tells me she is collecting all her old love letters to build one big fire. She is ready to let go. Perhaps you shouldn’t rush these things. What harm does it do to hang on to them a little longer?
Thursday, 24 July, 2008 @ 03:16
Keep them
I always enjoy reading oldfashioned (on paper) correspondence from years ago.
I read those letters and cards maybe one time in three years but it brings me back to those times when I really had no idea how to live or what to do but when I was happy and sad and young and ……..
I also keep some postcards my father send me and I realize how much I loved him and he loved me but we couldn’t say that
Thursday, 24 July, 2008 @ 05:27
A few years ago me and my sister went through a box full of toys that we’d played with, long ago. I have very fond memories of that afternoon. We were moved, feeling like little kids again, and we were laughing and talking over the things that we’d forgotten, but now rememberd. Most of the stuff found it’s way back into the box and the box found it’s way to the garbage. The few things that we kept are even better memories now than they were then.
Maybe you shÛuld go over those love-letters one day and keep only the ones that fit to the photographs, or that are just very special, for whatever reason. And throw away the rest. The memory of those will stay nonetheless, but the box will take less space.
Thursday, 24 July, 2008 @ 12:33
I love that poem! How great that it comes from your dad!
Thursday, 24 July, 2008 @ 17:46
Wow! I didn’t know I had that many readers. Neglecting the fact that all commenters are female I conclude I should keep the box of love letters. So I will. Thank you for your input!
And yes Martine, my father was a truly special man.
Saturday, 2 August, 2008 @ 20:08
Als jij later beroemd sterft, worden deze geveild voor miljoenen…
Wat een mooi gedicht!
Tuesday, 26 August, 2008 @ 12:58
Goh, wat een mooi gedicht. Ik ben jaloers: ik heb geen gedichten van hem aan mij persoonlijk gericht of moet ik ook eens gaan opruimen. Niet alleen bewaren maar KOESTEREN dus en later als je seniel bent dan denk je: wie was die man?
Tuesday, 2 September, 2008 @ 16:34
I’d recycle them, but that’s just me. The past that matters I keep inside. The rest, I let go of. (This does NOT apply to books, for obvious and multifaceted reasons!)
I’ve thrown my own stash away years ago. I simply asked myself if I’d ever look at them again, and my own answer was “never”.