Jennifer surprised me with a hand-made solid walnut sea chest at my commissioning ceremony. It's big, heavy, and beautiful, and has become the central store house for all of my Navy "junk" that probably wouldn't sell for more than $10 at an auction. But everything that I have in it has a memory attached to it, and I could bore someone to tears "spinning yarns" as we say in the Navy. My boot camp ID card, the paperwork requesting promotion from Seaman Apprentice to Seaman, a set of "cracker jack" whites, my "egg division" from Chief Petty Officer initiation... I know that in the event of a fire, I won't be able to drag that chest out of the house, but I will dearly miss everything in it.
By the same token, Jennifer and I have a few rubber maid storage boxes that are simply labeled "memories." We don't go through them very often - every few years when we move. They are chocked full of stories, and they all weave together to form the story of our life together. Unfortunately, they are up in the attic... it's not something that we can easily access, so in the event of a fire, that stuff is gone too!
To be honest, I can't think of many other things that I'd be terribly disappointed about going up in smoke. I don't mean that to sound like I'm some anti-materialistic hero, but as much as I love our furniture, my clothes, our cars, my bikes, etc., they could all be easily replaced. I have a few tools from Grandpa that I would be sad to lose, and perhaps some jewelry (the ring that Mom and Dad gave me in high school, my wedding ring, my 20th anniversary ring). I'd definitely be sad to lose all of our pics... but as strange as it sounds, I feel like most of them are imprinted in my memory. The usage of photographs has drastically changed over the years... not many people print them anymore.
What am I missing? Am I neglecting anything?
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