Searching

For the past few weeks I have been endeavoring to sort out the books and booklets I’ve written by date. Then I want to make a second collection sorted by topic. I thought it would be a simple project but now I am suffering from the result of a lifetime practice of sloppy book keeping.

Then there is the matter of stuff I have written that is in my computer that has never been printed in booklet form.

Add to that the temptation to sit down and read some of this stuff that I might not have even thought about for many, many years.

You could not even imagine how tempting it is to just press the delete key on some of this stuff. Some of the painful memoirs.

The floor up in my music room is almost covered now with rows of the stuff sorted by topic and I’ve a bookcase I might empty out for that collection. In other words, there is a ray of sunshine breaking through now and then to this often challenging project.

When I discover a booklet that somehow eluded this list I must fight the temptation to edit it and add a new thought or two. With a discipline I am not certain that I can muster, just a few more days and I might sit back and sigh, ask myself, “Why did you do this, Art?”

I guess I wanted to get my life sorted out and try to make some sense out of it. The books and booklets are my life. The good and the bad.

The funny and the tragic. That’s me on that shelf, chronologically and by topic. I guess by moving all this load around physically I’m dealing with my past and preparing for my future. It is not the easiest project I’ve ever dealt with but it just might turn out to be the most rewarding.