Thank you for your vulnerable and open hearted sharing. “Death cleaning” resonates for me as my husband passed away August 11. And now I have COVID! After 10 years of his illness, taking all precautions to avoid any infection coming his way. So now I am, perforce, resting. Not too sick, and in blessed isolation. I read your letter with great compassion for that younger man. “Using all resources.” In my life I’ve been too distractible. So far.
Many thanks for the comforting and supportive responses. As Rob says below - this is a safe space for candour and sharing. Thanks to those who also shared their grief. Loss of loved ones touches all of us. We're all in this together.
Jackie, I'm so sorry. I remember that in the early months of SC you had mentioned caring for your husband, which I know can't have been easy. I hope that as you recover yourself that you're surrounded with love & support. Clubbers are rooting for you.
My heart goes out to you, Jackie. The last few years have been weighted with so much death--lovers, partners, parents, grandparents. When my last grandparents died during the pandemic, my thoughts went to all the stories that passed on with them. I hope you keep the stories you shared with your husband close to your heart. I give you all the love a stranger can give.
Sorry for your loss Jackie, this time last year I lost my mother unexpectedly and I'm not the same person anymore, for better and worse. I hope the memory of your husband is a blessing and your time with him informs your writing or other creative endeavours. Feel better soon ❤️
What a space, a safe space, for candour this Story Club we are signed-up to has again provided.
For your loss mere words cannot, really, convey more than a hint of our empathy with you facing the trauma you'll be experiencing Jackie ... though looking at the words that others have offered I believe you can rely on the thought that, in so far as they can, your Story Clubbing Peers are right there, rooting, for you ... not just today, but tomorrow, and in the days beyond.
Stay well, share what you may wish to, ask and we'll be listening ... should you wish to say more.
Åhh Jackie, get better soon! And so sorry for your loss. It’s typical, though. While in the midst of a strenuous situation, our bodies function. And as soon as they don’t have to any more, we feel the fatigue, our immune system takes a break, and we get sick.
My father died of cancer 10 years ago, and my mother had taken care of him for the five years he was in and out of chemo and radiation therapy. After he died, she was tired. Really really tired, constantly tired, for at least a year and a half.
And then she was not tired anymore, and started travelling, and catching up on all the adventures in life she had missed out on. And she has not stopped travelling and enjoying life since. She is 83 now, and we will meet her for her birthday in Florence, Italy.
I hope this cheers you up a little. I am sure you will get through this as well, and eventually regain your strength :-)
I'm so sorry for your loss Jackie. You're in a gentle, kind place--maybe the kindest place on the web! Please rest and be kind to yourself. Sending you my best thoughts.
I'm sorry you're going through this, Jackie. It sounds like you've held up a long time, and I hope you'll keep checking in. Sounds to me like you've paid a lot of attention... like a writer and a lover of others. A heart hug to you.
Hoping for a good clear run of no distractibles.....mean while hoping that the recent ground carries you from strength to strength regardless of physical divides^^
One of my dear friends had this experience recently. Her husband died, and then she got COVID at his memorial. I'm glad you're not too sick, and I hope you can sleep, hydrate, and that you didn't lose your sense of taste. Condolences to you.
So do I appreciate this timing, and Jerusha's comment. I'm living in the house my husband and I have shared since we came to Southampton (UK) when he got his second job and I became jobless. That was 54 years ago - years filled with bursts forward full of adventure and then blockages, babies that didn't make it to birth and one that, gloriously did. Now we're both a bit old and infirm, the horizons have drawn in a bit narrow, and we have several rooms that look like partial versions of your basement - though with none of the distintion of foreign editions of our books. I keep imagining the horrible task of clearing it all out when we're gone, and wishing we could do it instead while we can still enjoy it. I have perennial bouts of 'weeding', intended to be to spare our son that horrible task. But they're always a bit of a joy - I find things I wrote as a student with a verve and confidence that I've never recovered, letters from people thanking one or other of us for things we forgot we did for them, and have been thrilled to remember. So, with your two promptings, I think we should do it while we're alive, and move our horizons outward again.....
Jane, I have read your comment here a couple of times now and am struck by the words "babies that didn't make it to birth and one that, gloriously, did." The story beneath those words... Yes, doing the clearing out while we are alive not only helps those left behind when we die, but allows us the opportunity to remember our former selves and the many lives we have lived. Some of it can be quite painful--as in a letter I recently found from my father, and which I still cannot read but also cannot throw out.
Mary - I'm sure there's a huge story behind the letter 'which I still cannot read but also cannot throw out. I'm sorry for the pain it hides. This house is full of memories - and people we shared it with. Perhaps I should tell *its* story, which is also mine and my family's - then 'research' would be the sorting of those boxes and files.... There's a thought
While suffering from a host of self-inflicted wounds, Mother Nature decided to pile on, and wipe out my house with floodwater from a hurricane. Unnecessary roughness. It was weird going through ruined photos, albums, letters, yearbooks, and keepsakes. The experience wasn't liberating, not a bit. It left a mark.
I couldn't rise and dust myself off because there was no dust. So, I wrung myself out, and started anew. When I rebuilt the house, and filled it with things devoid of sentiment, I realized I wasn't the same man as before. Fortunately, I had no time to dwell on this problem because my brand new house was once again wiped out by a hurricane—the second catastrophe in three years. Hahahahaha…good times.
I loved this post, George. If I were there, I'd help you with the big, less personal items. I'm good at it.
Andy, that is a painful, sad way to lose so much that is sentimental and important to you. Traumatic. I'm sorry. Having lost some treasured things due to flooding, myself, I can understand a small portion of this and empathize with much more of it than I experienced. I wish for you to carry and be able to revisit your treasured memories or their reverberations, the best ones stashed in places within yourself that enrich your life and never leave you.
Aren’t you a precious soul. Thank you, Traci. I’m okay, I think. Certainly more fortunate than many. After all, I’m in Story Club, and I’m typing this on a magic device communicating with lovely people I’ve never met. Nowadays, I often forget my psychic injury. It’s more of a limp, really.
I'm sorry, Andy. I see you're in Louisiana. My husband & I are in DC, but his family is in NOLA, where we were visiting when Katrina bore down. Lost a bunch of stuff including one family house in Pass Christian & all it contained but, blessedly, no family. Not easy, recovery, but possible. Wishing you well.
Thank you, Rosanne. It seems I'm preaching to the choir. I'm sorry for your own experience. I lived in southwest Louisiana, where, one month after Katrina, Hurricane Rita hit. It was called the Forgotten Storm because Katrina got the press. That was in 2005. In 2008, my Destroyer was Ike. (And not Tina Turner's, either.) At that point, I had the good sense to take leave of my senses. I also left that area.
I remember Rita. And Ike. Yep. Leaving, best thing. There's a message in there somewhere, yes? I'm a Yankee & had never been through a hurricane & don't wanna, but my husband (Coast Guard & part of the post-K rescue mission), who'd been through many, scooted us outta there just in time., wind, rain, and whatnot at our backs. We escaped by rental car---turns out I can drive faster than I thought.
So sorry, Andy :-( Living in Europe I only have Orkan experience, and they are usually not nealy as devastating. A tree that fell in the garden, a few tiles.
But this being story club- I just finished reading Sarah M Broom - the Yellow House. So I feel I have some idea of your loss anyway.
Have you read that? If not, highly recommendable.
I hope you are slowly accumulating things again that make your current place feel like a home.
Was this experience part of what opened you to Advaita and the Upanishads? Or were you already there? I can’t even tell you how great that was. Still vibrating. Thank you!
Well that sucks. I’m glad you’re good despite all that loss and effort destroyed.
Also, you’re suffering is valid even though other people may have fared worse. It’s great that you have a positive outlook, but it is also okay to just grieve over all that. Grieve what was while embracing what is now.
Perhaps you already have. I just know what it’s like to feel a little guilty that you came out better than some and not wanting people to think you take that for granted. (Really, I may just be projecting here, so disregard what doesn’t apply)
Dear George, when the kitchen is packed (well, when everything is packed), maybe you will write back to the 1989 George. Tell him, from the heart, just how well he's done.
Thank you for sharing all of these realizations in the midst of so much work and change.
Oh, that letter! "I have nothing to offer the world when I am careful." Going to be writing this on a card above my desk.... Thank you for sharing this.
My husband and I have lately been the beneficiaries of my in-laws own "death-cleaning." They started the process a couple of months ago and unloaded the final truck this morning.
It has been a beautiful process and a gift. So many stories, photos, memories uncovered.
The biggest blessing is the ability to ask them about their treasured items while they are still living, rather than wonder about them after they have passed. Thanks, George!
Thought provoking post Jerusha which prompts me to make so bold as to ask what might you be thinking, with a view to legacy and posterity, in terms of sustaining the match-up between their thoughts about their treasured items and their treasured items in the time beyond their passing?
Like David I'm smiling from the heart, my reason being finding myself wondering 'who beyond their birth and death certificates were these folks'? Most folks, individually or as couples, never turn up in the afterlife finding themselves having been 'curated' in whatever way(s) in their former lives.
Thought provoking post, as I say. In 'processing' as a I write.
ps. the letter. now a manifesto posted by my desk. thank you young George for writing and for current George for sharing. gems: "I have slavishly imitated other writers..." "I have nothing to offer the world when careful." "Listen only to memory." "...only if your goal is to learn, not to finish, impress or prove."
Those are astonishing. “Only to learn…” The directness, simplicity, humility. And I feel that Hemingway, and many other writers, must have had a similar re-opening.
As I have just in the past three weeks packed up our small apartment, fit it all into a 5x8 foot u-haul trailer, filled the back and backseat of a Suburu Outback with traveling items, though I buried my guitar on the bottom - Doh! - this “death-cleaning” comes to me fresh as we are on day #2 of our 9-day cross-country move and road trip from Atlanta to Seattle. We are currently in eastern Texas on I-20, 2 hours outside of Dallas.
As a treat, we’re listening to the audiobook of Lincoln in the Bardo. What a fun listen - though I admit it helps to have read the book. The voice of the Reverend sounds familiar - so I’m particularly interested in Sunday’s offering. We will be traveling from Flagstaff, AZ to Bakersfield, CA and look forward to reading about the Reverend.
Enjoy your move, George. Thanks for the pictorial.
Making me nostalgic for my childhood! We made the most of our cross-country moves exploring and listening to audio books that (back then) we’d have to pick up at Cracker Barrel.
Yes. I was a stuckey’s kid myself. Now they have these giant truck stops called Buc’ee’s. Darn good sandwiches. And plenty of snacks and so many gas pumps.
You're making good time! And your timing with the audiobook suddenly seems perfect. Now, I feel it's not enough to have only read the book, so I wonder if I have time before next post to get the audiobook in, also. Always meant to because of all the contributors and fomo. (Which is the nature of a TBR pile and book hoarding, I suppose, but I'll defend it 'til I die and keep collecting more than I can ever read because, JOY.) When you get to Bakersfield, there used to be a popular restaurant there, fyi, where they cut off your tie and hung it on the wall if you wore one in, so ofc you had to wear one in. Have no idea what it was called and if it's even still there, but maybe ask around. Bet you'll have a lot of stories to write about in your Substack after this journey, though. Safe travels.
One of my favorite parts of “Lincoln in the Bardo” has been not knowing if the Reverend went to heaven. Here on earth, we don’t get to *know*, do we? I appreciated that the mystery of his eternity was kept between him and God. So I’ll spend the next three days deciding whether to read Sunday’s post or … skip it?
Dang it! I tried. Loved this generous post by the way George, thank you. Fascinated by Uncle Cloud’s Partial Lexicon of Humans and your letter to yourself.
Love the little poems and the note to self. This all feels like a little video in real time of a person casting off artifice and opening up to all the beauty and life buried within. And is therefore liberating and inspiring to everyone.
Who knew death cleaning could be so life-affirming? Thank you so much for this!!
I loved your letter to yourself (like many others here, I'll print it out for keepers). And your doodles/poems remind me as much of Shel Silverstein as they do of Dr. Seuss. I hope the move goes well. I guess this means you aren't teaching at Syracuse any more? I told one of my son's graduated cross-country teammates who just started as a freshman at Syracuse to take a writing class from you if he could, even if he's majoring in mechanical engineering or something like that. Let me know if you are continuing to teach somewhere else and I'll send graduating runners that way instead. :)
George always brings me up short. Then I have to scramble through the mess to get the message: it has to be from the heart. And it has to be FUN! If you get that, then with hard work and many tears you might find "your own simplicity." The simplicity I want is complex, though. Like Grace Paley. But first, back to the heart and the fun.
Thank you for your vulnerable and open hearted sharing. “Death cleaning” resonates for me as my husband passed away August 11. And now I have COVID! After 10 years of his illness, taking all precautions to avoid any infection coming his way. So now I am, perforce, resting. Not too sick, and in blessed isolation. I read your letter with great compassion for that younger man. “Using all resources.” In my life I’ve been too distractible. So far.
So sorry, Jackie - sending much love your way…
Many thanks for the comforting and supportive responses. As Rob says below - this is a safe space for candour and sharing. Thanks to those who also shared their grief. Loss of loved ones touches all of us. We're all in this together.
Just saw your post, Jackie. Sending love and hugs. Thank you for being such a fantastic force here, and everywhere.
Jackie, I'm so sorry. I remember that in the early months of SC you had mentioned caring for your husband, which I know can't have been easy. I hope that as you recover yourself that you're surrounded with love & support. Clubbers are rooting for you.
My heart goes out to you, Jackie. The last few years have been weighted with so much death--lovers, partners, parents, grandparents. When my last grandparents died during the pandemic, my thoughts went to all the stories that passed on with them. I hope you keep the stories you shared with your husband close to your heart. I give you all the love a stranger can give.
Jackie, I'm very sorry to hear this - and then Covid on top. Take good care of yourselve
Sorry for your loss Jackie, this time last year I lost my mother unexpectedly and I'm not the same person anymore, for better and worse. I hope the memory of your husband is a blessing and your time with him informs your writing or other creative endeavours. Feel better soon ❤️
I’m sorry for your loss, Christy.
What a space, a safe space, for candour this Story Club we are signed-up to has again provided.
For your loss mere words cannot, really, convey more than a hint of our empathy with you facing the trauma you'll be experiencing Jackie ... though looking at the words that others have offered I believe you can rely on the thought that, in so far as they can, your Story Clubbing Peers are right there, rooting, for you ... not just today, but tomorrow, and in the days beyond.
Stay well, share what you may wish to, ask and we'll be listening ... should you wish to say more.
Love
Rob
Åhh Jackie, get better soon! And so sorry for your loss. It’s typical, though. While in the midst of a strenuous situation, our bodies function. And as soon as they don’t have to any more, we feel the fatigue, our immune system takes a break, and we get sick.
My father died of cancer 10 years ago, and my mother had taken care of him for the five years he was in and out of chemo and radiation therapy. After he died, she was tired. Really really tired, constantly tired, for at least a year and a half.
And then she was not tired anymore, and started travelling, and catching up on all the adventures in life she had missed out on. And she has not stopped travelling and enjoying life since. She is 83 now, and we will meet her for her birthday in Florence, Italy.
I hope this cheers you up a little. I am sure you will get through this as well, and eventually regain your strength :-)
Big hug from Copenhagen, Denmark! Julia
Thanks - it’s good to know your mum’s trajectory through her grief and exhaustion and renewed energy for life. I’m glad for her and for your family!
I'm so sorry for your loss, Jackie. Please, even when you've recovered from Covid, continue to take very good care of yourself.
I'm so sorry for your loss Jackie. You're in a gentle, kind place--maybe the kindest place on the web! Please rest and be kind to yourself. Sending you my best thoughts.
I'm sorry you're going through this, Jackie. It sounds like you've held up a long time, and I hope you'll keep checking in. Sounds to me like you've paid a lot of attention... like a writer and a lover of others. A heart hug to you.
Jackie, I am so very sorry to read of the loss of your husband. I do so hope you recover from your covid very quickly. Thinking of you.
So very sorry for your loss, Jackie. I hope your covid infection is over soon, with no lingering effects.
Thanks. I seem to be weathering the COVID - Day 4 and feeling much improved.
Hoping for a good clear run of no distractibles.....mean while hoping that the recent ground carries you from strength to strength regardless of physical divides^^
^..^
I'm so sorry, Jackie.
I think it is really BIRTH Cleaning^^
One of my dear friends had this experience recently. Her husband died, and then she got COVID at his memorial. I'm glad you're not too sick, and I hope you can sleep, hydrate, and that you didn't lose your sense of taste. Condolences to you.
So do I appreciate this timing, and Jerusha's comment. I'm living in the house my husband and I have shared since we came to Southampton (UK) when he got his second job and I became jobless. That was 54 years ago - years filled with bursts forward full of adventure and then blockages, babies that didn't make it to birth and one that, gloriously did. Now we're both a bit old and infirm, the horizons have drawn in a bit narrow, and we have several rooms that look like partial versions of your basement - though with none of the distintion of foreign editions of our books. I keep imagining the horrible task of clearing it all out when we're gone, and wishing we could do it instead while we can still enjoy it. I have perennial bouts of 'weeding', intended to be to spare our son that horrible task. But they're always a bit of a joy - I find things I wrote as a student with a verve and confidence that I've never recovered, letters from people thanking one or other of us for things we forgot we did for them, and have been thrilled to remember. So, with your two promptings, I think we should do it while we're alive, and move our horizons outward again.....
Jane, I have read your comment here a couple of times now and am struck by the words "babies that didn't make it to birth and one that, gloriously, did." The story beneath those words... Yes, doing the clearing out while we are alive not only helps those left behind when we die, but allows us the opportunity to remember our former selves and the many lives we have lived. Some of it can be quite painful--as in a letter I recently found from my father, and which I still cannot read but also cannot throw out.
Mary - I'm sure there's a huge story behind the letter 'which I still cannot read but also cannot throw out. I'm sorry for the pain it hides. This house is full of memories - and people we shared it with. Perhaps I should tell *its* story, which is also mine and my family's - then 'research' would be the sorting of those boxes and files.... There's a thought
Here's a twist on Death-Cleaning Revelations:
While suffering from a host of self-inflicted wounds, Mother Nature decided to pile on, and wipe out my house with floodwater from a hurricane. Unnecessary roughness. It was weird going through ruined photos, albums, letters, yearbooks, and keepsakes. The experience wasn't liberating, not a bit. It left a mark.
I couldn't rise and dust myself off because there was no dust. So, I wrung myself out, and started anew. When I rebuilt the house, and filled it with things devoid of sentiment, I realized I wasn't the same man as before. Fortunately, I had no time to dwell on this problem because my brand new house was once again wiped out by a hurricane—the second catastrophe in three years. Hahahahaha…good times.
I loved this post, George. If I were there, I'd help you with the big, less personal items. I'm good at it.
Andy, that is a painful, sad way to lose so much that is sentimental and important to you. Traumatic. I'm sorry. Having lost some treasured things due to flooding, myself, I can understand a small portion of this and empathize with much more of it than I experienced. I wish for you to carry and be able to revisit your treasured memories or their reverberations, the best ones stashed in places within yourself that enrich your life and never leave you.
Aren’t you a precious soul. Thank you, Traci. I’m okay, I think. Certainly more fortunate than many. After all, I’m in Story Club, and I’m typing this on a magic device communicating with lovely people I’ve never met. Nowadays, I often forget my psychic injury. It’s more of a limp, really.
I'm sorry, Andy. I see you're in Louisiana. My husband & I are in DC, but his family is in NOLA, where we were visiting when Katrina bore down. Lost a bunch of stuff including one family house in Pass Christian & all it contained but, blessedly, no family. Not easy, recovery, but possible. Wishing you well.
Thank you, Rosanne. It seems I'm preaching to the choir. I'm sorry for your own experience. I lived in southwest Louisiana, where, one month after Katrina, Hurricane Rita hit. It was called the Forgotten Storm because Katrina got the press. That was in 2005. In 2008, my Destroyer was Ike. (And not Tina Turner's, either.) At that point, I had the good sense to take leave of my senses. I also left that area.
I'm good.
I remember Rita. And Ike. Yep. Leaving, best thing. There's a message in there somewhere, yes? I'm a Yankee & had never been through a hurricane & don't wanna, but my husband (Coast Guard & part of the post-K rescue mission), who'd been through many, scooted us outta there just in time., wind, rain, and whatnot at our backs. We escaped by rental car---turns out I can drive faster than I thought.
Late for me to tell you but don't live anywhere near a flood plain including the coast^^
So sorry, Andy :-( Living in Europe I only have Orkan experience, and they are usually not nealy as devastating. A tree that fell in the garden, a few tiles.
But this being story club- I just finished reading Sarah M Broom - the Yellow House. So I feel I have some idea of your loss anyway.
Have you read that? If not, highly recommendable.
I hope you are slowly accumulating things again that make your current place feel like a home.
Thank you, Julia. It's nothing compared to the loss of life, loss of hope, and the like. My experience is just a story of soggy things.
I'm aware of The Yellow House, but I haven't read it yet. I appreciate the recommendation.
Was this experience part of what opened you to Advaita and the Upanishads? Or were you already there? I can’t even tell you how great that was. Still vibrating. Thank you!
David—To whom were these rhetorical questions directed? It can’t be me. I haven’t made anyone vibrate since 1998.
Well, little do you know…
Well that sucks. I’m glad you’re good despite all that loss and effort destroyed.
Also, you’re suffering is valid even though other people may have fared worse. It’s great that you have a positive outlook, but it is also okay to just grieve over all that. Grieve what was while embracing what is now.
Perhaps you already have. I just know what it’s like to feel a little guilty that you came out better than some and not wanting people to think you take that for granted. (Really, I may just be projecting here, so disregard what doesn’t apply)
Lanie— You’re a peach. Thanks. And you can project my way anytime. Whatever you imagine will be better than what I come up with.
Andy. How awful. I'm really sorry.
It’s been a while. The GS cleaning brought it to mind. Thanks.
Dear George, when the kitchen is packed (well, when everything is packed), maybe you will write back to the 1989 George. Tell him, from the heart, just how well he's done.
Thank you for sharing all of these realizations in the midst of so much work and change.
Come to think of it, we should all be writing a letter to ourselves, from wherever we're at, right now.
I wrote one to myself. It was returned to sender.
Back at you!
This cracked up.
*cracked me up. Obvs.
Tell the postman he must deliver it - get a receipt for tracking as proof it was delivered. :)
Yes!
I'm writing you instead^^
That 1989 George was wise, indeed.
What does MVM stand for asks GPO?^^
Magical varied Moments
Memory vrs. Madness?^^ Yours is the BEST by far!!!
Oh! and you are Magical!^^
Oh, that letter! "I have nothing to offer the world when I am careful." Going to be writing this on a card above my desk.... Thank you for sharing this.
My favorite phrase from the letter, too, Jamie. Thanks for saying it. How many times do I have to remind myself of that?
I really appreciate the timing of this post.
My husband and I have lately been the beneficiaries of my in-laws own "death-cleaning." They started the process a couple of months ago and unloaded the final truck this morning.
It has been a beautiful process and a gift. So many stories, photos, memories uncovered.
The biggest blessing is the ability to ask them about their treasured items while they are still living, rather than wonder about them after they have passed. Thanks, George!
Thought provoking post Jerusha which prompts me to make so bold as to ask what might you be thinking, with a view to legacy and posterity, in terms of sustaining the match-up between their thoughts about their treasured items and their treasured items in the time beyond their passing?
Like David I'm smiling from the heart, my reason being finding myself wondering 'who beyond their birth and death certificates were these folks'? Most folks, individually or as couples, never turn up in the afterlife finding themselves having been 'curated' in whatever way(s) in their former lives.
Thought provoking post, as I say. In 'processing' as a I write.
Smiling from the heart, reading this!
ps. the letter. now a manifesto posted by my desk. thank you young George for writing and for current George for sharing. gems: "I have slavishly imitated other writers..." "I have nothing to offer the world when careful." "Listen only to memory." "...only if your goal is to learn, not to finish, impress or prove."
Those are astonishing. “Only to learn…” The directness, simplicity, humility. And I feel that Hemingway, and many other writers, must have had a similar re-opening.
Maybe..just too much belly button TIME??^^ Why?^^
I asked a famous author
If he would share a sketch
He wrote and drew in younger days
And he said, "What the heck."
They're really kinda silly.
They really are a hoot.
But best of all his goofiness
Shows we can draw them, too.
So, if you know the George-man,
But even if you don't,
Take up your pen and do like him
And get in on the joke.
It's fun to laugh and giggle.
Sounds stupid but it's true,
The whole world may have gone to heck,
But we know what to do!
Thanks, George! Silliness was just what I needed today. Good luck with the rest of the clean-out.
I love that letter so much, especially the line: "If only your goal is to learn, not finish or impress or prove." Thank you for writing and sharing!!
As I have just in the past three weeks packed up our small apartment, fit it all into a 5x8 foot u-haul trailer, filled the back and backseat of a Suburu Outback with traveling items, though I buried my guitar on the bottom - Doh! - this “death-cleaning” comes to me fresh as we are on day #2 of our 9-day cross-country move and road trip from Atlanta to Seattle. We are currently in eastern Texas on I-20, 2 hours outside of Dallas.
As a treat, we’re listening to the audiobook of Lincoln in the Bardo. What a fun listen - though I admit it helps to have read the book. The voice of the Reverend sounds familiar - so I’m particularly interested in Sunday’s offering. We will be traveling from Flagstaff, AZ to Bakersfield, CA and look forward to reading about the Reverend.
Enjoy your move, George. Thanks for the pictorial.
Making me nostalgic for my childhood! We made the most of our cross-country moves exploring and listening to audio books that (back then) we’d have to pick up at Cracker Barrel.
Yes. I was a stuckey’s kid myself. Now they have these giant truck stops called Buc’ee’s. Darn good sandwiches. And plenty of snacks and so many gas pumps.
Best of days On The Road lee.
Thanks Iam! Appreciate it.
You're making good time! And your timing with the audiobook suddenly seems perfect. Now, I feel it's not enough to have only read the book, so I wonder if I have time before next post to get the audiobook in, also. Always meant to because of all the contributors and fomo. (Which is the nature of a TBR pile and book hoarding, I suppose, but I'll defend it 'til I die and keep collecting more than I can ever read because, JOY.) When you get to Bakersfield, there used to be a popular restaurant there, fyi, where they cut off your tie and hung it on the wall if you wore one in, so ofc you had to wear one in. Have no idea what it was called and if it's even still there, but maybe ask around. Bet you'll have a lot of stories to write about in your Substack after this journey, though. Safe travels.
The Bakersfield cut tie restaurant sounds familiar. We will have many stories indeed.
That manifesto is wonderful. Thanks for sharing it. I like knowing that you stole office supplies, too.
That last paragraph - man. Nails it. Thank you.
One of my favorite parts of “Lincoln in the Bardo” has been not knowing if the Reverend went to heaven. Here on earth, we don’t get to *know*, do we? I appreciated that the mystery of his eternity was kept between him and God. So I’ll spend the next three days deciding whether to read Sunday’s post or … skip it?
Audra, I was thinking the exact same thing!
George - la Boda - what do you reckon? Salvageable or no?
No. Never. 😉
Dang it! I tried. Loved this generous post by the way George, thank you. Fascinated by Uncle Cloud’s Partial Lexicon of Humans and your letter to yourself.
Sounds like a 'Gamma Minus Minus' rating to me.
Which simply translated, by your unreliable correspondent, accords with previous respondent's, "really, that bad?"
Love the little poems and the note to self. This all feels like a little video in real time of a person casting off artifice and opening up to all the beauty and life buried within. And is therefore liberating and inspiring to everyone.
Who knew death cleaning could be so life-affirming? Thank you so much for this!!
I loved your letter to yourself (like many others here, I'll print it out for keepers). And your doodles/poems remind me as much of Shel Silverstein as they do of Dr. Seuss. I hope the move goes well. I guess this means you aren't teaching at Syracuse any more? I told one of my son's graduated cross-country teammates who just started as a freshman at Syracuse to take a writing class from you if he could, even if he's majoring in mechanical engineering or something like that. Let me know if you are continuing to teach somewhere else and I'll send graduating runners that way instead. :)
I am teaching there still - just in the fall and I come for bursts to work with our third-year grad students.
I heard Shel Silverstein in there, also, but for grown ups! Because of the skin and stuff. George has another genre to claim.
George always brings me up short. Then I have to scramble through the mess to get the message: it has to be from the heart. And it has to be FUN! If you get that, then with hard work and many tears you might find "your own simplicity." The simplicity I want is complex, though. Like Grace Paley. But first, back to the heart and the fun.