I’m taking a quick break… from packing, not blogging. I’ll be blogging from a new geographical address come next week.
The Guideposts editorial offices are moving to downtown Manhattan, from 16 East 34th Street to 110 William Street, close to the old seaport. Considering the distances some people cover when they relocate, this is nothing. But remember, we’re moving 35 or so people and we’ve been here 20 years, most of my career. It gets complicated.
As excited as I am about moving down to old, historic New York (34th Street was just a farm tract when William Street was first bustling), I will miss this nabe—my view of Macy’s and Herald Square, of the huge old building just across the street that used to be B. Altman’s department store, where I proposed to Julee. I’ll miss seeing all the tourists in line at the Empire State Building and the knickknack stands across Fifth Avenue selling stuff no New Yorker would ever buy.
A lot of stuff collects over the course of 20 years, if only through sheer inertia. Stuff hangs on to you. I’m about halfway through filling the first of just a few (hint, hint, you gotta throw stuff out, dude) plastic bins I’ve been allocated. They’re a blinding, fluorescent yellow. I had to shield my eyes at first. They almost look as if they could carry toxic materials.
Which in a way they could. I’m totally amazed by the things I’ve held on to for years that I should have thrown out five seconds after they came into my possession. A backstage pass from 1993? A concert stub from 2000? And I am addicted to books. By weight, I own more books than anything else. I’m sure all my books together weigh more than my car or my furniture. I can give a few away… wait, not that one.
In fact, I can let go of a lot of stuff if I let myself, and feel really good about it. Liberated. The stuff itself isn’t toxic but holding on too tight is. Whatever I toss in the dumpster doesn’t lose its meaning, if it has any. All the true things in life you pack away in your heart and your soul and your bones. They go everywhere you do. It’s not that complicated.
