Ok, I admit it, I’m a paper freak. Beloved and I have been avid genealogists for many years. When you come home from a scouting trip with a deed or death record you’ve been searching for high and low, you get attached to paper. The tendency to hold on to things the younger generation— maybe the one after that or even after that one—might want some day is very great.
Over time, boxes and piles of things that other family members don’t want come our way and we toss them in the attic. There comes a limit and the dawning realization that much of it will have no value to future generations. Old cards and notes from people I don’t even know? Unlikely. Every scrap of paper related to estates and house sales twenty years ago? Unlikely. And that is just the start.
As part of service for MLK Day today, a college near us is conducting a shredding event. I spent the weekend sorting so I didn’t lose the few gems that interest me and **might** matter to future family. A small binder and a file box are going back in the attic. A handful of things are going in the genealogy files. We will tote the rest of it off to shred this morning.
Hopefully I’ll be back to The Willow and the Rose writing the aftermath of a confrontation between my hero and the heroine. Have you pre-ordered your copy of Fire & Frost yet? It’s a dandy, just on time for Valentine’s Day, and only 99cents. You’ll be seeing a lot about it in social media. I’m off to shred— but first, coffee.
