What would you do if you lost all your possessions?

Another ironically timed prompt considering this weekends activities. Maybe Jetpack could let me borrow their Time Machine or maybe it’s called their “Ironic Oracle” that allows them to peer into my near future? Nah. It could be handy but I would prefer to keep it all a surprise. Anyway… back to the irony.

“Toys are Totems” stemmed from the question; “Why do I have all this stuff?!?”. In the book writing process, I got to what I found as a bottom of sorts when it comes to my collection and collecting habits.

“But what about the garage?”

“Oh, that’s hoarding, Jim.”

“Ah. Gotcha.”

That realization as embarrassing as it may be has made for a weekend of equally embarrassing and back breaking work in emptying said garage and giving it the Chapter 15 treatment from the book. Also sharing this most final, conclusive lesson to my wife Alicia and daughter Kaitlynn.

After all, 97% of this stuff that’s been accumulated, curated, collected and hoarded is theirs. I’ve just packed, moved, stacked, repacked and tripped over for the past 17 years. My soul won’t allow for the “wash, rinse, repeat” cycle to go on since releasing the book.

I’m no hypocrite. Plus, I am so damn tired of tripping over stuff.

So if it all went away and turned into a real world performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and we only had each other, we would move forward with the sadness that comes from loss of the familiar. At the same time though we’d still have the memories collected. Most importantly though I wouldn’t have the PTSD that comes from waiting on the moment once again where I end up flat on my back staring at the sky, attempting to pinpoint which part of my body the pain is rating from after tripping over that damn shoe that hasn’t been worn in 15 years.

Now, Go Play!

Jim 10/05/2025