When you are unwilling to forget anything but were denied a photographic memory there is only one alternative – never throwing anything away. This, by the way, was the subject of this odd recent Not Eudora Column.
While moving, sorting, categorizing and refiling stuff I noticed this old newspaper ( above ) that I kept from my college days. Its pinned on a cork board under the Prayer of St. Francis. How’s that for an appropriate contrast. It has a certain resonance today, 44 years later.
When my office was fixed up five years ago, in time for me to use it for my School Board work, I had so much stuff I only crudely organized it. Its been sorted in bits and pieces since but not to my satisfaction. As all of it is intended for reference for the half dozen books I repeatedly threaten to write I desperately need to be able to find things without wasting time scrounging through it all. Like the Saturday Night Massacre headline things go missing.
I crammed myself in the corner of my “storage closet” to take a picture that would give my eight loyal readers a sense of where I work. I couldn’t capture the other side of this space but it too is crammed with files: Here’s the photo:
I haven’t ruled out a school board campaign next fall. I haven’t ruled out running for President the following year. I plan to finally get some books published next year. I have got my substitute teaching license reactivated. I expect to be as busy next year as I am most of the time. I just need to be really well organized since I don’t expect to ask anyone else to help me with any of these projects. (Maybe I shouldn’t rule out getting some of Vladimir Putin’s people to help me with the Presidential Campaign. He seems to like a little chaos when it visits America.)
As a result of my preoccupations the Christmas jigsaw puzzle I brought back from France still has barely progressed beyond its frame. On the working side of my office the floor has stacks of files and photographs strewn about. If you look in the picture you can see a shelf cleaned off that should be able to accommodate most of it. I also have a couple of empty file cabinets.
I don’t intend to start substitute teaching until the holidays are over and my office has turned lean and mean. I’ve started a book once again. I’m still studying French. I’ve spent an hour a day for the past two months practicing my parle vous. Maybe I can go help Macron if he’s still in office a year from now. Hold your horses Harry! Stay focused. Remember, “America First.”
