I have had a clear out. It makes me feel good to shred things no longer needed. Was there any point in keeping those files of old bank and credit card statements from the 1980s?
But as I fed them into the shredder I had a feeling of some regret because I was destroying some of my history. There were the credit card entries from the French motorways as we drove through France. And there was the payment for a camera... and a payment to Toys-r-us. I haven't been in a toy shop for years now! I had to look away as I was taking too long to feed them into the shredder.
Well they are now all gone. But my memories are not gone? So many days hours and minutes summed up in those transactions which had been half forgotten. I suppose if you live a full life you cannot remember everything and anyway how accurate were those memories really? Those motorway tolls reminded me of great holidays in the Pyrenees but I had forgotten the tedium of the fourteen hour drive across France to get there! Memories are selective.
I am just grateful that I have so many good memories - it must be desperate if you cannot look back for fear of remembering too well. How sad if you are someone for whom the past is something you only want to forget.
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