I once attended a Metropolitan Opera performance transmission in a Florida movie theatre where eager opera-goers arrived hours earlier for a 3 hour performance. Not surprisingly, by the time it was finished these geriatric Floridians forgot where they had parked. There was a cacophony of car horns honking and indicator lights flashing while everyone pushed walkers around the lot trying to locate their vehicle.

Ivan and I don’t have a remote to honk the horn and flash the lights to find where we’ve parked, when we don’t remember. Instead, we had a Sears roof top car carrier, a big, dirty, white eyesore that enabled us to easily spot our van. It’s further distinguished by the great scar the carrier was dealt when we plowed into an underground parking lot forgetting that it was on top… proving our sorry lack of memory already.

We reluctantly bought the carrier to hold the extra stuff that we didn’t need but weren’t ready to part with yet. We’ve reassigned a few possessions to friends and found a good home for a lot of stuff at my daughter Rebecca’s house in Canada.

We can rejoice in further reducing stuff. It’s a mixed blessing though, because I can now imagine being in the same sorry lot as those opera-goers, trying to find where we’ve parked.

“In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added.
 In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped.” Lao Tzu  from Tao Te Ching