Fw: Some Things You Keep

[Guest guest]

This is beautiful and something to think about and cherish. Love to all, Judy FW: Some Things You Keep Received from a friend ....Some things you keep. Like good teeth. Warm coats.Bald husbands.They're good for you, reliable and practical and sosublime that to throw them away would make the garbageman a thief.So you hang on, because something old is sometimesbetter than something new, and what you know is oftenbetter than a stranger.These are my thoughts, they make me sound old, oldand tame and dull at a time when everybody else isrisky and racy and flashing all that's new and improvedin their lives. New careers, new thighs, new lips, newcars. The world is dizzy with trade-ins. I could keeptrack, but I don't think I want to.I grew up in the fifties with practical parents. Amother, God bless her, who washed aluminum foil aftershe cooked in it, then reused it - and still does. Afather who was happier getting old shoes fixed thanbuying new ones.They weren't poor, my parents, they were justsatisfied. Their marriage was good, their dreams focused.Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can seethem now, Dad in trousers and tee shirt and Mom in ahousedress, lawnmower in one's hand, dishtowel in theother. It was a time for fixing things - a curtain rod,the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hemin a dress.Things you keep. It was a way of life, and sometimesit made me crazy. 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 autumn night,in the chill of the hospital room, I was struck withthe pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any 'more.'Sometimes what you care about most gets all used up and goesaway, never to return.So, while you have it, it's best to love it and carefor it and fix it when it's broken, and heal it when it'ssick. That's true for marriage and old cars and childrenwith 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 that moved away or aclassmate you grew up with, there're just some things that makelife important....people you know are special....and youKEEP them close!Author unknown