AVOIDING MY FAVORITE THINGS

Unrelated announcement:  Show Your Mojo With Coffee Table Books, my latest post on Home Goes Strong.

I wonder whether anyone else avoids using favorite things.  As far back as high school, I remember saving my blue Villager blouse for special occasions.Disney Piglet Mini Bean Bag Plush

Now that I’ve lived several more decades, there are so many more favorite things to save and not use.  For example, I once had a set of four Winnie the Pooh juice glasses.  Tigger, Eeyore and Winnie himself all broke, which serves me right for using them with abandon.

Now that only Piglet remains, I keep it in the front of a cabinet with glass doors, because I like to see it.  But then, whenever I need a drink, I have to move it to get to my Archie jelly glass or one of the other less-favored ones farther back on the shelf.  I don’t even want to talk about how many extra minutes of my life this exercise has taken up.

With dishes, I’ve done a good job getting around this problem of faves.  I don’t really have sets of salad plates, which has allowed me to collect a wonderful variety over the years. Just to be safe, I buy two of each.

Ah, but this vast array of dishes I’ve amassed, it turns out, requires me to think even harder.  Do I want to enjoy my tomato sandwich from the soothing yellow dish with lavender rim or one of the three plates each of my three girls gave me at different times and, if so, which one?

Green Stripe UmbrellaAs for umbrellas, I collect small lightweight ones; you can never have too many umbrellas. Some are really lovely, such as the olive-colored one with turquoise border that I don’t believe has ever experienced a raindrop. After I lost the russet-colored umbrella I bought in Vienna, the only ones I’ll use are the ugly red one and the uglier brown with dots of assorted pastel hues.

I admire my kids who can buy something new and just start right in wearing it.  When I finally do wear something new, I feel best after it has acquired some sort of ding to make it less precious.

So what’s up with all this saving things?  Maybe it’s a version of the fear of loss I have about everything from Casey to photographs to the death of my third husband, if I ever were to acquire one.  On the other hand, all those cherished black sweaters I’ve left behind in movie theaters and on airplanes?  I’ve accepted their disappearances with grace and even at times relief that I no longer have to worry about losing something I’m so fond of.

Janice Joplin may have had it right, at least when it comes to favorite things, “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”

What favorite things do you avoid using? I’d love to hear from you in the comments box below!

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