Monday, May 14, 2012

5. The Guy Who Saves String - May, 2012

The guy who saves string...A crazy invention from the mind of Woody Allen, from the short pieces he published years ago. The guy who saves string shuffles oddly down the street, mumbling to himself, obsessing over string, how to save it, and how he can find more of it. It is one of those mental images that makes a you laugh the first time you read about it, and nearly every time it pops into your thoughts from then on. So...when I began unpacking a 15-year-old box from my storage space, and pulled from among the stacks of useless old papers, a single piece of string, I realized I had some self-examining to do. Technically it's bigger than string. It's either a very long shoe lace, or the kind of lace you tie swim trunks around your waste with. But let's be honest; it's string...and I saved it...in a box...for 15 years. There are many different reason for saving things: -Reminders of important events in your life. -Ideas jotted down that you might someday carry out. -Things that once influenced or helped shape who you have become. This is a piece of string, though. The only reason I can come up with that might explain why I saved it, is that I was convinced that sometime in the distant future something might desperately need to be tied up. That doesn't help me much. I want to go into denial about this. There are other things in this box from the 1990's that I can't explain: -Empty envelopes... Apparently, on several occasions, I received something in the mail, opened the envelope, took out the contents, and saved the empty envelope. And it isn't as if I opened it carefully, planning to re-use the empty envelope. No, I tore the damn thing open...then saved it. -A Tennis magazine, with Yannik Noah on the cover. At least that is slightly interesting today, since I have been watching his son Joakim play basketball for the Chicago Bulls. That helps a little. Sometimes you save something on gut instinct; Maybe, just maybe, this magazine with this tennis player on the cover will resonate in some unique way in the future. I suppose I was thinking the piece of string would resonate in some unique way someday; "Oh yeah, remember that time when we had the string, and we used it to...to um....tie that....that thing....to the other thing....you know with this piece of string?: "Yeah, that was awesome." Nope. I have LOTS of self-examining to do. And don't even get me started on the expired old driver's license of an ex-girlfriend... Peter Wick May 14, 2012