Hold Them Loosely

Sometimes things that are said to me are like water off a ducks back, while at other times they impact me big time. Really can’t pick it. Just happens. When a person said to me a few years ago “hold them loosely,” that impacted me big time. They were talking about stamps, but it seems to me that can go for anything.
I was robbed a couple of times before I was married. Nothing major. I had some brass go missing and the guy (who I knew), owned up and made an attempt to pay me back. I found an artefact one time and it went missing. At another place my cricket bat went missing. I should have been a wake up that something was going on, as the dog went off big time. Since being married we had a tank pump go missing. We knew we had it but of course when we needed it, it was nowhere to be found.
I am not one to declare something missing until all avenues have been explored. It is only then I will entertain the possibility that may have happened. I find it amusing and somewhat frustrating that when something disappears, and I know it was put it in a “special place.” It seems most people have one of those. Probably a lot of stuff in there. It is ironic that a thing is put in a “special place” so it will not be lost and then the “special place” is lost. I reckon should I ever find that “special place” there will be heaps in it. “So that’s where that is. Haven’t seen that in years. Bought a new one as I thought that was gone forever.”
It seems that if someone is bigger or stronger or more wiley than me, they can overcome me and grab our stuff. I feel I am at a bit of a disadvantage. It is what they do. It is all new to me. I learn as I go alone. They may have learnt already.
Still, I gotta say I am thankful. What has disappeared has been inconsequential. Not like those people in the bushfires who lost everything. There is no doubt in my mind that the more I treasure something, the greater the sense of loss when it is gone. One consolation is that it does not matter what belief system I adhere to, I can’t take any stuff with me.
I heard a joke about a husband that demanded his wife put $35,000 in his grave with him. She agreed to it. When it happened, her friend was incredulous. She said, “I wrote a cheque.”
It is not just thieves I need to watch out for, it is just general decay or vermin. The person who said “hold them loosely” had given me a pile of stamps. They were in a suitcase in an outbuilding. Had been for years. Rain affected. Cockroach affected. Merril will tell you they were a mess. My first job was a salvage operation. That was done, and there was so much good stuff that remained. Not everything, but heaps.
It is easy to say and harder to do, but I try to hold everything loosely. After all, in a sense what does it matter, life is short, and I am dead a long time.