Some Things You Keep

[Guest guest]

I didn't write this but it's food for thought. SOME THINGS YOU KEEP

Some things you keep. Like good teeth. Warm coats. Bald husbands.

They're good for you, reliable and practical and so sublime that to

throw them away would make the garbage man a thief.

So you hang on, because something old is sometimes better than something

new, and what you know is often better than a stranger.

These are my thoughts, they make me sound old, old and tame, and dull at

times when everybody else is risky and racy and flashing all that's new

and improved in their lives. New careers, new thighs, new lips, new

cars. The world is dizzy with trade-ins. I could keep track, but I

don't think I want to.

I grew up in the fifties with practical parents -- a mother, God bless

her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused

it--and a father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying

new ones. They weren't poor, my parents, they were just satisfied.

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. They stayed together

through thick and thin. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I

can see them now, Dad in trousers and tee shirt and Mom in a house

dress, lawn mower in one's hand, dish towel in the other's.

It was a time for fixing things -- a curtain rod, the kitchen radio,

screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things you keep. It was

a way of life, and sometimes it made me envious. All that re-fixing,

reheating, renewing. I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant

affluence. Throwing things away meant there'd always be more.

But then my father died... and on that clear November day I was struck

with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any `more.'

Sometimes what you care about most gets all used up and goes away, never

to return.

So, while you have it, it's best to love it and care for it and fix it

when its broken and heal it when it's sick. That's true for marriage

and old cars and children with bad report cards and dogs with bad hips

and aging parents. You keep them because they're worth it, because

you're worth it.

Some things you keep. Like a best friend who moved away or a classmate

you grew up with, there's just some things that make life important...

people you know are special ... and you KEEP them close!

-- Author Unknown

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