Recently I was going through a bunch of stuff that had belonged to my grandfather. It had been in storage and my wife got in this mood that we needed to simplify our lives so she figured by her reasoning that we might as well clean out the storage place we were renting.
Actually I can even explain why I hadn’t done it sooner. I mean when my grandfather passed away years ago and I ended up having this stuff literally dumped on me by my dad I just wanted to get rid of it. But my grandfather had been an important part of my life in many ways so I didn’t feel like I could just toss the stuff away.
He was my model in terms of politics since he was also our city’s mayor when I was a kid. Well perhaps not the perfect model, but he did have a big influence on the way I approached politics. I guess I felt a certain pressure to follow his role. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest choice, but you know it did serve me well in terms of political survival so I guess I can’t complain.
The thing is I had fully intended to go through all the boxes. But I just never got around to them. I would think about it sometimes, but I don’t know I just somehow kept putting it off for one reason or another.
And then the day came when my wife decided we needed to stop putting it off. (I think she was primarily motivated by this television show she watched about people finding wealth in the form of stocks and bonds in boxes they inherited.) But regardless I knew she was right.
So I arranged for someone to pick them up and closed out the rental space. Then I had them delivered to our house. Afterwards came the real fun. Taking the time to do what we had put off for far too long, searching through the private artifacts of another person’s life.
Despite my wife’s disappointment I have to admit that I really ended up enjoying the experience. True we didn’t find any hidden “treasure” in terms of stocks and bonds, but we did find all kinds of personal items that reflected things about my grandfather’s life that I didn’t even know.
It turned out he had been interested in nature. I found books on bird watching and national parks. I even found a few items that indicated he had been involved with the Audubon Society.
They all hinted to the fact that his life was more diverse than I had ever imagined. That in fact his interests extended beyond the walls of city hall and politics.
For me it was a revelation. A certain epiphany about how people can be a whole lot more than we imagined. And it was definitely true in my grandfather’s case.
That brought me to the disquieting reality that perhaps stored in the minds of so many people are the hidden treasures stored away that await to be discovered. I can’t say I’m going to make that a life’s calling, but I do think I’ll probably look at people a little different from now on. Hopefully, I’ll do so in a more positive way and not just to regard them as someone to take advantage of. Hey, I’ll try, which for me is about the best I can promise!