Join me now in the disorder of boxes and paper folders wrenched open after years of abandonment, saturating the air with dust, the floor covered with yellowed paper, some covered with ink, others type.
My feelings were mixed recently when I decided it was time to clean out old filing cabinets and boxes of papers that, indeed, had not seen the light of day in decades.
Once exposed, however, such early writings, poetry, philosophy papers and pamphlets cannot be "cleaned out," I realized, as in discarded, if that was ever really the intention when the task was begun.
You ask yourself, what do you do with all this material in the age of electronic, digital storage? Aren't filing cabinets and boxes of papers obsolete these days? If worth saving at all, shouldn't these writings and other documents be scanned into text files and saved on a CD or flash drive?
I'm old-fashioned, I guess, because I'm not about to trust that my first published article _ a piece on the paranormal for Indian River magazine in 1968 _ will be retrievable on a CD a year from now, let alone a decade or more.
Maybe I'm a fossil, but I can't imagine retyping my very first college newspaper commentaries, on the growing opposition to the Vietnam War and the issue of patriotism, as Word or PDF files and trashing the original publications.
Speaking of that war, I found a large pamphlet, titled "Vietnam: Make No Mistake," that was published by the Students for a Democratic Society in 1970. Try as I might, I just couldn't toss it.
It was the same for a short story, which I forgot that I had written, about an SDS member who took a factory job so he could try to convince workers that they should demand better pay and conditions. He couldn't understand how they could be content with what they had. (I was so embarrassed by the quality of writing, I really was ready to take that one to the transfer station.)
Oh, look here, in a folder labeled Birth, are the remaining birth announcements for our youngest daughter, with a drawing by an artist friend who misspelled her middle name. We had chosen Alexis, but he spelled it Elexsis, so when filing her birth certificate we decided to go with it. Definitely have to keep those.
Surely this small batch of poetry I wrote some 40 years ago could go. Just type them on the computer and store them on a CD. Hey, if something happens, too bad; probably not worth keeping the hard copies. An excerpt from 1969:
Sometimes I think I have found the right way
But it never looks the same the next day.
I'll always keep listening until I die —
I just can't help moaning with a sigh.
Every time I think how hard I made it on myself
I might as well be thrown on a musty old shelf.
See what I mean? But just in case …This job was supposed to be a real, literal housecleaning. There must be some way to part with some of this stuff.
What about the papers I wrote on the struggles of Joseph K. and Siddhartha, Albert Camus, Nietzsche's critique of science, and all the translations from the German for my thesis on Wilhelm Dilthey?
Will anyone ever miss them? Will I? Why can't I just let them go?
Oh, the Buddhism folder, with a graduate school prof's translations from the Sanskrit of two chapters of Chandrakirti's commentaries on the work of Nagarjuna. They had not previously been translated into English. Surely, despite their espousal of non-existence, they have to be saved and treasured.
But wait, a quick Google search has revealed that those chapters and others were compiled into a book by that professor and a colleague. I can get it through Amazon for _ what? _ $165. I guess I should keep the chapters I have.
College degrees, both mine and Susan's, fill one folder. Saved all these decades, they include an A.A., B.A. and M.A. Funny; I've never been asked over all the years and jobs to prove I had a college education. Certainly can't get rid of them now.
I never expected it would be so difficult to part with all these papers and documents. So what now? Dust them off, I guess, and put them back where they belong. Discarding them will have to be someone else's task after I'm gone.
Cary Brunswick, of Oneonta, is a freelance writer and editor. He can be reached at brunswick@earthling.net.
Cary Brunswick
Memories will stay on ink, paper
- Cary Brunswick
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Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
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Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
Since I began a career in journalism 35 years ago, a lot has changed in news, style and technology. One aspect of the former I find most irritating is that through the decades what people say is often treated just as newsworthy as events.
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As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
The Oneonta school board is considering balancing its budget for next year on the backs of the Center City and its residents, especially parents and young children.
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U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
So, what about Syria? That question has been posed for nearly a year now, since the Arab Spring uprisings led to the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and eventually Libya.
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Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
In one of the recent GOP presidential debates in Florida, candidate Rick Santorum ripped President Barack Obama for his policies on Latin and Central America in general and Honduras in particular.
- Saturday, January 21, 2012
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Pumpkin seeds and the problem of China imports
I was shopping at a local supermarket recently and bought some organic pumpkin seeds. Ordinarily, I check over food-product labels but didn't think about it this time, knowing there are so many pumpkins grown not only in upstate New York but also in the nation. The shock I experienced when I got home points to what I believe is the biggest facet of the economic and jobs crisis facing our country.
- Saturday, December 31, 2011
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Unrest, energy, economy were big news in 2011
Perhaps you've seen The Associated Press list of the Top 10 stories of the past year, based on a polling of about 250 editors and news directors from across the country. It's difficult to argue with the selections, but I would combine some of them and certainly rank them differently.
- Saturday, December 10, 2011
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Trading freedom for security isn't American
Back in the late 1960s, after the election of President Richard Nixon, one of the common phrases of protesters was that the United States might be the first nation to go fascist by democratic vote.
- Sunday, November 20, 2011
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Occupy Wall Street protests changed the conversation
During the past week, numerous Occupy Wall Street encampments have been shut down in cities across the country, with police making arrests and sometimes clashing with campers and their supporters.
- Saturday, October 29, 2011
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Nov. 8 looms large for friends, foes of hydrofracking
The future of fracking _ and perhaps our region’s clean water _ will likely be decided in the courts, but perhaps also in the voting booth on Election Day, Nov. 8.
- Saturday, October 8, 2011
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Fear and frustration fuel the rise of Wall Street protests
What is it those protesters want, anyway? That's what many people are asking as the demonstrations using Wall Street as their evil icon continue to grow and spread, with rallies this weekend expected to be the largest yet.
- Sunday, September 18, 2011
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Airport funds could be better spent elsewhere
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against private planes and flying, but something's out of whack when the Oneonta airport gets funding of nearly half a million federal dollars while the city's streets are crumbling beneath local motorists.
- Saturday, August 27, 2011
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Communication is key to keeping neighbors friendly
When I was in college, I lived in a two-bedroom apartment one year with three other students in a residential neighborhood, long before most communities had zoning laws.
- Monday, August 8, 2011
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Don't let frack proposal go unchallenged
What a frackin' mess.
- Saturday, July 16, 2011
- Saturday, June 25, 2011
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Grads must discover who they are
High school graduates this weekend are hearing speeches from administrators and their top academic classmates about how important their parents, teachers and friends were as they enter the new paths they've chosen from what life has to offer.
- Saturday, June 4, 2011
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Some war vets' experiences too harrowing to retell
The Little League season was winding down and it hadn't been a great year for my American Legion team. After practice, my father, the coach, stopped by the Legion for a glass of beer and said I could go in with him. It was June 6.
- Saturday, May 14, 2011
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Peace, not death, would be cause for celebration
"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." _Jessica Dovey, English teacher, after hearing of Osama bin Laden's death
- Saturday, April 23, 2011
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Nuclear risks as scary now as 32 years ago
A little more than 32 years ago, a small group of homesteaders huddled in a cabin on a Fingers Lakes hilltop on the day a nuclear emergency was declared at the Three Mile Island nuclear-power plant near Harrisburg, Pa.
- Saturday, April 2, 2011
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'Obama Doctrine' is same tune, different words
I've been witness to the United States intervening both militarily and covertly in the uprisings and civil wars of other countries for half a century, and what's now being termed the Obama Doctrine in Libya doesn't look much different from many of our other forays.
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