BEEN STEWING ALL WEEKEND, and still haven't come up with a satisfactory resolution. Time is running out, so I'll be forced to make a decision soon.
Here's my dilemma: do I keep cleaning out my closets of old and over-sized clothes---size 8s now that I'm a solid 6 again--- take them to my favorite crisis pregnancy center---CareNet in Dickson, TN, 35 miles from Nashville---or get myself dolled up for polite society and go to the reception prior to the funeral of an old friend and conservation colleague I've hardly seen in years?
I think to myself why not do both? Because I'm leaving for the East coast later this week and my time is crowded. My closets are begging for attention, purging. Many of my clothes are welcomed with open arms at places like Carenet.
I hate going to funerals. Anyway, I already attended one two weeks ago after getting back from Wyoming. And now this one.
The biggest reason I hesitate going is it's one of those big society funerals, the kind---sure people go to pay their respects--- but then many go to to see and be seen. Ugh, double ugh! It will be a bone crusher.
I bailed out of the social scene long, long ago to live a simpler life, chase the trout and hike high moutains. I love keeping a low profile when I'm back here.
Interestingly at the funeral I recently attended, several people I haven't seen in decades, if ever, knew almost everything about me except my social security number. I seem to be elusive enough to sometimes be the subject of conjecture and gossip, though my life is about as unglamorous and routine, especially to me, as it gets.
Anyway as I write this with piles of old clothes stacked up in my front hallway, think I'm going to Carenet this morning and send out a prayer to this man's family and hope to convey my condolences to his sweet widow in the grocery store one day.
The most fun memory I have of him is together we stormed out of a conservation meeting with Tennessee state officials with great drama and fanfare years ago. It got everyone's attention and we both thought it was the most fun thing we'd done in ages! It was a bonding experience if there ever was one: storming out of a government meeting!
I feel like a smuck for being so cavalier about this, but cleaning out my closets and taking the stuff to CareNet still seems like a holier place to be today.
Monday, October 10, 2011
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3 comments:
The funeral happens once.
Carenet is open all the time.
I'd do the funeral, and donate the clothes later.
Being a guy, my closet, singular, never has much, and even less variety. A yearly Christmas trip to the Goodwill truck suffices for things I have grown out of. Sounds like you have enough memories to justify the funeral. The goodies will be just as welcome, though by different ladies, if they are delivered later than sooner. If this is not the desired advice, please disregard.
Thank you both for your feedback and comments. Actually I drive out to CareNet and delivered the clothes, gased up, ran by to check on a good friend's cats, came home with every intention of not going...then I read your comments and decided to dash and get dressed....I would be thirty minutes past the beginning of the service...but guess what!? when I arrived there was still a long receiving line and the funeral hadn't started. Ended up going in with friends for the entire service which was lovely. So both were accomplished though I never intended that at all.
Thanks always for your feedback and advice. It was a good idea!
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