I finally faced the devil and cleaned up my catch-all drawer. It had reached 120 percent capacity and constantly jammed. The climax came when, as I gave it a manly yank, it suddenly leaped out, scattering its innards hither and yon. Seizing the opportunity to seriously get the upper hand, I spread the slew of forgotten trash and treasures over the floor for a better view. The battle was on.
Not stopping to unduly ponder the choices, or to read the contents too carefully, I quickly acquired a “keep” and a “toss” pile. At first, things were easy to discard like the dried rubber bands, crumpled grocery receipts, several inkless ball-pens, a tie pin (ask a senior) and, of course, the many memos from long ago with forgotten names and phone numbers often with mysterious scribbles: “Jake 30 doctor C,” “dragon tat smoker D,” “Jim/Joe/Jeff?,” “bubble Montana,” etc. Who knows what they mean?
The tough choices were the one cent stamps, the almost new flip-phone, the expensive eye-glasses from four years ago, a pile of discount coupons from various stores, casinos and porn shops possibly still usable, a tube of rubber cement surely good for a second time, several maybe new batteries, likewise, a couple of seemingly OK condoms. You get the idea.
I ended up keeping most of this stuff; you never know. When I finished, the throw away ratio to the keep was sadly not as great as I had envisioned. However, the drawer is neater and there is room for new must-keeps. All in all, an afternoon well spent. Follow my lead and you’ll feel great. Next, I envision an assault on the hall closet which is becoming a twin to Fibber McGee’s (ask a senior).
How times have changed
With all the gender/sexual bending, re-defining, choosing, denying, etc. flooding the media today, I confess to being confused as I am sure many seniors are. When young, we were surrounded by unquestioned sexual norms. Deviations were unheard of and unmentionable. Books, movies, TV and life in general told us what was expected of us as we fulfilled our roles. For example, men, shown in many a comedy skit, could not boil an egg. More importantly, they should not. Likewise, girls daring to study engineering were soon harassed out to more “suitable” majors. Toys and games were sexualized and seldom bisexual (asexual? unisexual? Whatever!).
What a change today. Women can be Army Rangers. A kid’s cartoon program had a boy having a tea party and later he held and bottle-fed his baby sister. My initial shock turned to wonderment and pleasure. The mix of ethnic groups has been obvious for some time and scenes with male nurses and women doctors no longer raise an eye brow. But I have been neglecting to pay attention to broader inclusions.
Last night, I noticed a child in a wheel-chair in a commercial, not blatantly starring in it, just one of the regular background characters. Thinking back, this happened with LGBT characters which first appeared in small and then starring roles in all media forms. The exposure snowballed over the last 20 years to the current “not an issue” situation.
The assimilating and incorporating those with special differences, including the impaired and challenged, into a visual and acknowledged part of our lives is a trend which is gathering momentum to the enrichment of all.
