Dear Barbara; about your house
Barbara, I have never more wanted to talk to you then this week, when getting ready to sell your house. Why is everything so dusty?...
Question of the Week: Family & Friends
What things are you good at, that your parents were good at, too?
Borderline hoarding. Making piles of things to go through later. Sweeping said piles into boxes, to go through even later. The super-power of no flat surface being safe near me, I will explode all over it.
Oh, you think I’m joking…..!
No, but seriously… the above, but also… the ability to be patient with someone who’s being a real jackass, and looking for the truth behind their bluster. To really listen to people’s stories. To make lonely people feel listened to.
So… basically… I’m really good at making messes, and listening to people. OH GOD I’M MY FATHER. (without the beard)
Also? When Alice and I were in high school, she was a photographer and folky/funky coffehouse patron. Sound familiar?
I’m good at finding a way to talk to everybody about something. Usually themselves. It’s Dad trick; he used to say ; ” Let ’em talk” .
Glad you got rid of the beard, Lore! You can carry emulation too far.
I’m also really good at hoarding, or at least really bad at throwing things away. If we moved into Westminster Abbey I’d have that sucker full in a year.
That definitely comes from G-ma. She not only wouldn’t throw anything away, she (and I) would comb through the junkyard behind their property in Tarrytown in the expectation of finding things that some rich person had thrown away by accident! We found stuff all the time that just had to be brushed off a little. She was recycling long before it became a meme.
Needless to say, this had my father at wit’s end all the time. He wasn’t a fanatic about order, but I think sometimes he did want to know what was under the piles of crap.
It was part of her creative and playful spirit. How can you say that’s something’s worthless if you haven’t picked it up and played with it? (Doesn’t work with people all the time . . .)
Unca Joe