Life less cluttered

Life, less cluttered 

 There is not much clutter in my life. My life was not much cluttered. As a fastidious child and a fussy adult, I brooked no clutter around me. My heart and soul are cluttered but my habits are clean and efficient, manners always impeccable, cupboards military neat, and the office desk clean as the pulpit of a church. My wife, however, did not believe in this mumbo-jumbo and asked me to clean up my act and my cupboard, a desk, and little wardrobe. 

Here I was then, one Sunday afternoon, fortified with a pint Bira beer, sat to de-cluttering my adult life of 50 years. Cloths first. I did not possess many suits, but few I had to go. I no longer wear them. Out went with suits, all my outdated corporate attitudes, false pretenses, and stiff upper lips. I did not need them either. One black suit I kept for funeral attendance, as I live in a predominantly Catholic suburb. 

Shirts & trousers. I need trousers but all white shirts have to go out. I now live with half a dozen T-shirts after retirement. Occasionally, I throw on a jacket to be a little formal. I began wearing whites two decades ago, possibly to calm my raging aggression and eliminate choices. I have realized that evil lies in choices. My life would have been much simpler had I stayed with fewer. I possess dozens of cloth accessories that I want to keep. These are useful when you travel and have no access to the washing machine. 

Books and papers are next on the list. Over 50 years, I gathered books and thrived reading them, lending them, displaying them. Alas, no one borrows them anymore. Besides, we have no space in our tiny flat. I do my reading on Kindle, so all books have to go except a few of John Grisham's that I read repeatedly when I am feeling low and need zing in my life. 

Papers are next. I want to dump all the certificates of school and college. These were junk, to begin with, and got me nowhere in life when I won them. I wish I had pursued my heart and gone my own way. All the awards, trophies also have to be dumped. They were as frivolous as my attitude toward life when I won them. Next came my degree and diploma certificates that had no value. They taught me all the wrong things in school and college and misled me to believe that I am educated. My illiterate mother was more educated in terms of life learning than these degrees gave me. 

A cupboard drawer revealed knick-knacks of my 50 years of travel. God knows why I collected them. A plaque claiming I have climbed the Great Wall of China, a miniature Eiffel Tower, paperweight inscribing my visit to the London Eye, and a miniature statuette of Jesus Christ, protector of Rio. These I kept aside for someone young who is still excited about life & travel. 

And finally, and with longing, I looked at a notebook of handwritten poetry, penned at an age when I wanted to change the world and was burning with anger. 

This I kept aside for myself. Just in case if I can reignite that fire in me again someday.