#165 preservation

A friend sent me an email: "please write about how important it is to keep some things for a long time and how to know the difference."

As far as work goes, I have a simple mantra:  keep things when you are the source.  If I am the head of the committee that held the meetings, planned the event, wrote the grant or hired the person, I think you need to keep the backup materials and much more detail than others do.  But if I am just a member of the committee, my minutes go almost immediately into the recycle bin if they are even printed at all.  If I can get something elsewhere, I let them do the storing instead of me.  It is a delineation that has served me well for many years.

As for what to keep of a personal nature, I refer to a quote from William Morris of the Arts & Crafts Movement:  "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."  I will admit that I have amassed a collection of personal mementos that go beyond that strict interpretation, but I do try to keep the volume in check.    

For me, moving has served as a trigger to go through such goodies and purge.  Time has a way of making things either more or less valuable -- that room decoration from college loses its sentiment after a few decades, but the art from first grade seems to increase in value.  But as long as it is only one piece of art, I can frame it, enjoy it and recycle the rest without regret.

The second part of my friend's email read: "I like antiques and sometimes the "antique" way of life like manners, civility, caring about quality get lost in our focus on the new!"  Regarding the intangibles, I think we should strive to preserve the timeless principals of civility, manners, patriotism, respect, etc. -- and update the way they manifest themselves. Thank you notes are still important, but they don't have to be written with a quill pen.  

The theme of the whole message is to find a workable balance -- if you're spending too much time tracking down or bemoaning that you have given things away, you can hold on to a bit more.  If your collection of "stuff" impedes your ability to find documents or a free surface in your house, then a bit of elimination may be what is called for.  And if your focus is all about you and not about the other guy, whack yourself on the head with an old-fashioned Golden Ruler and follow the advice of your ancestors.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

(Thank you Tracy!)