I have been sorting paper.  I was motivated because my daughter Becky does big estate sales and always has to go through tons of paper that has been left over from a lifetime, and I don’t want her to have to sort through all of mine when the time comes. (That sounds depressing--no...I’m not depressed, I am motivated.) It is amazing all of the stuff we keep-and the reasons we haven’t thrown it away.  

I put all of my transcripts in a folder.  My mom was always wanting me to make perfect grades and I guess I kept the transcripts to say, “I did it.”  Who cares anymore...I’m not applying for a job.  And there are a zillion release forms from hospitals and doctor’s offices.  Why do I have all of that.  But the things I haven’t thrown away are the notes my children wrote to me.  Those are priceless.  And the notes from a creative writing class I took...I had forgotten that I had written stuff a long time ago.  But there are bags and bags of paper that is useless.  And the things I am keeping are in files with titles on the file.  At least I’ll know where to find the useless stuff I am keeping.  Even if I don’t know why I’m keeping it.