Norwichrocks tagged me for a meme the other day, and the subject was interesting enough that I spent most of the time I was walking my dog cogitating on it. The subject of the meme was what ten things I would save if my house was burning down. Thinking about such things makes you address how many “things” you have, the relative importance of them to you, exactly how materialistic you are. Are things important to you because of their monetary value, or because of their sentimental associations?
And so forth and so on.
Of course, it is important to realize that no matter how important and sentimental or intrinsically valuable a thing is, it is still just a thing, and the most important thing to save from a fire is yourself with your skin intact, and your children and loved ones. These are not negotiable, and irreplaceable. It is also important to note that when you are thinking about subjects like this it is useful if you have a plan of exit in case there is a fire going on. Not only that, but you should have a back-up plan in case your first route is unavailable to you; like, for instance, that route is engulfed in flames or the roof has fallen in on it.
All those caveats aside, I enjoyed Norwichrock’s discussion of how she really doesn’t have a lot of things accumulated because of her recent move. We, on the other hand, have occupied the same place for 15 years now, and we arrived in it fully equipped with “stuff” and have only added to the collection in the intervening years. Interestingly enough, there are some items that have been on the “list” for the whole of our relationship, and are still on it. Also, interestingly (I think), we have “rehearsed” this exact scenario many times in the last few years, but not regarding a fire. We regularly prepare for tornadoes in this area, with tornado watches, tornado warnings a part of our ordinary life. So quite often, we have actually evacuated the important and valuable things to the storm cellar in preparation for potential destruction of our abode.
So, without further ado, here is my list.
The first thing on it is Ruby. How could I not take this loving dependent out of harms way? Could you leave this face behind?
The second thing on my list is my jewelry box. This is a rosewood box that Jim got for me in Pakistan when he was there during a Navy exercise. It is inlaid with brass, but it is what is in the box that is important. By taking this one item, I take my opera length strand of pearls that was my “Good girl” award for sticking with him during the year long tour of duty on the LaSalle (there are two other posts that follow the one I linked to, if you are interested), my wedding rings, the “Universe” ring, the “heirloom” jewelry from my grandmother and his mother, the first set of earrings for pierced ears (jade posts given to me by a boyfriend) I ever owned, etc etc etc. I estimate that the sentimental value of this box (and its contents) is incalculable, and the monetary value is rather high.
Third: the external hard drive of our computer. Since our Mac backs up everything on the computer to this hard drive every day, this would retrieve all our financial records and all my digital photographs in one 3″x5″x1/2″ package.
Fourth: the healing crystal collection. Is this one item? Not really, but grabbing the whole slew of them is as simple as gently pouring them onto a pillow case, which wouldn’t take much more time than just taking one crystal. If you’re going to be snotty about it and not count the whole group as one item, then I would have to take the tourmaline wand. It would fit into my pocket neatly, and I admit I’d probably cheat and take the laser quartz phantom wand in the same grab, since they live next to each other.
Fifth: my altar.
Sorry, this is non-negotiable. It counts as one item, and putting all the things on it into my cauldron, which sits right next to the actual table, takes about 15 seconds. I know this because I have timed it. I would leave the table. That is replaceable.
Sixth, the Peter Max “Flower Blossom Lady.” This is an artist proof of a lithograph which Max took into his studio and overpainted, so she is unique. I fell in love with her instantly, she hangs in my massage room, and I use her as a visual “source” for color when I am doing chakra balancing. In addition, she is quite intrinsically valuable, which you will discover if you start researching original Peter Max paintings on line.
Items seven, eight and nine are a series of dragons who live in the living room. I would (of course) take their hoards with them, for a dragon without its hoard is an unhappy dragon, and you don’t want an unhappy dragon living in your house. They are the citrine dragon (which I have covered elsewhere on the blog), The tiger eye dragon fan (which we purchased in Singapore), and the antique ivory dragon which was the first connection between Jim and me.
All of these dragons are intrinsically valuable as well as having sentimental attachments. But we also feel a certain responsibility to the artists who carved them. As unique pieces of art, we feel it is important that they not be lost to the world if it is in our power to save them.
Those are the things that immediately come to mind as the most important. The tenth item was hard to identify. It switches and wavers and I keep waffling about what should occupy the tenth spot, and then I wonder why is ten the magic number?
But if push came to shove, the tenth item would be the box of Christmas ornaments, because it represents all stages of my life and contains items given to me by every member of my family and just about all my friends for almost ever. Worth nothing in money, everything in sentiment and memories and connections.
So, this is my list. I’d be interested in yours.
the havens 