2001-04-04 - 11:59 p.m.

Letting Go

Recently, I've had a yen for strange potables. Maybe it comes from a desire to try new things. Maybe it's because I seem to be thirsty all the time.

A while back I saw this beverage, I think it was called Kobe. It looked like a mixture of orange soda and cream, so I thought I might try it. Reading the label it was touted as some sort of trendy health drink, mixing orange and cream with beneficial things like ginseng. Okay.

So I bought it at the beverage place and on the way home in the car I drank some. Hmmm. Tasted like orange and cream alright, with some tea mixed in.

Now I was thinking about those three flavors: orange, cream and tea. In any combination they're good. Orange and cream is a creamsicle. Orange Pekoe Tea is a very popular type of tea. People who drink tea frequently like cream in it. However, you mix the three together... yuck. It was not a taste I enjoyed, and I found the aftertaste a little too, well, vegetable for my liking. It was like licking the blade of a lawnmower. Ick.

When I took it home, I put the bottle in the refrigerator. The illogical logic behind this was that maybe it would taste better later. A while later I spied it while digging in the fridge for something to drink. I tried it again, and it still tasted like orange, and cream, and tea. Bleah.

So I put it back in the fridge again.

Today I was looking at all the drinkables in there, and I once again espied the attractive bottle, 3/4 full of creamy orange stuff.

I couldn't remember how long it had been in there. I was definitely NOT going to try drinking it again. Instead the thought occurred to me: what the hell is it still doing in there? Why haven't I thrown it out?

It seems to be endemic of a problem I have. I can't let go of things. It doesn't matter if it's a piece of paper, an object, an idea, a memory. I keep it around. It might be useful. I might need it some day! It would be a shame to throw it out!

But the fact is that the things we own also own us. We have to make room for them, keep them up, look at them, think about them. Life is too short to give in to the tyranny of objects, but there is so much stuff around me. What might I lose by getting rid of it. Would I seek it out again if I didn't keep tripping over it?

It's time to let go. It is high time for a Spring cleaning around here.

And oh yeah. I poured the orange cream stuff down the sink and threw the pretty bottle away.