Memories and Other Garbage

The other day I found a folder filled with memories from that trip we took together. I was cleaning out the cabinets in my kitchen, throwing things away that didn't need to clutter my life any longer.

I threw that folder away.

I forgot I had saved those things from so long ago and honestly don't know what I had planned to do with them at the time. The hotel confirmation. Our itinerary. A few postcards from the area. Our airline tickets.. with seat assignments printed on the front, serving almost as proof that we sat next to each other.

Guilt swept over me as I tossed the pictures from that underwater camera we used into the pile of waste. We looked really happy in those photos and seeing the smiling images placed on top of trash seemed wrong. Soon the happy beach scenes were covered with an old coffee maker, the box my cell phone came in and other garbage. I don't think of the memories as disposable waste so it feels incorrect to destroy them yet pointless to hang onto them. What am I going to do, frame the pictures? Keep the folder inside my cabinet under the phone book? These memories are fond in my mind but not necessary in their physical form. Still, aborting the tangibles feels strange.

Down the garbage shoot.

..and now,
no proof that our seats were together. Nothing to show that we sat beside each other for a moment in time.

..and for now,
I travel alone.

M.db