Boxed in, bound and burdened by that which has value.
My parents were children of parents who lived through the Great Depression and were children themselves during the World War 2 era of rationing, vouchers, and conservation. Mom was an only child and Dad a lone son of distant parents. Consequently, items and objects assumed a significant value of either money or memory, and often both. What we consider trash, they considered treasure, that someone would want “it” someday, “it” has value! Boxes and bins are now my responsibility, often with notes advising me to keep “it.” Some of these notes are on the back of the garment, where I don’t have to see them.
The burden is mine. What do I do with that which was precious to them? Do I spend the time and effort to find the person who sees the value and wants “it,” or do I donate these things and toss away the memory? My parents wanted me to redeem the financial value of these items that they had kept for decades. So here we are, my children do not want or need these things. My contemporaries do not want or need these things Thrift shops are overflowing with china, silver, glassware, collectibles, advertising, paper maps, old phones, figurines, and souvenirs…. I am weighed down by the burden of how to respect and honor their feelings and chained by the guilt of what to do with all these “things” that have “value”……but not to me.
The boxes on this rough and raw conceptual straight jacket, were kept by my Mom for their “value,” being from stores now closed or because a name or logo appear on the lid. Some are filled with actual objects of “value”, but most are physically empty, yet filled with guilt, pressures, and consequences. Each element must be removed and reattached whenever the garment is exhibited, time and effort thus required to assemble it, a process that feels like a penance.
(Garment can be displayed with or without the pyre of “valuable items” at the base.)
The burden is mine. What do I do with that which was precious to them? Do I spend the time and effort to find the person who sees the value and wants “it,” or do I donate these things and toss away the memory? My parents wanted me to redeem the financial value of these items that they had kept for decades. So here we are, my children do not want or need these things. My contemporaries do not want or need these things Thrift shops are overflowing with china, silver, glassware, collectibles, advertising, paper maps, old phones, figurines, and souvenirs…. I am weighed down by the burden of how to respect and honor their feelings and chained by the guilt of what to do with all these “things” that have “value”……but not to me.
The boxes on this rough and raw conceptual straight jacket, were kept by my Mom for their “value,” being from stores now closed or because a name or logo appear on the lid. Some are filled with actual objects of “value”, but most are physically empty, yet filled with guilt, pressures, and consequences. Each element must be removed and reattached whenever the garment is exhibited, time and effort thus required to assemble it, a process that feels like a penance.
(Garment can be displayed with or without the pyre of “valuable items” at the base.)