purging

Ugh. Today is one of those muggy sort of days. Not super hot, but just humid. I'm thinking of busting out my floor fan, if only so sleeping is actually possible.

Yesterday I helped Andrew's family move his uncle out of the house their family has lived in for 50 years. It's a pretty big house and his grandpa hoarded, meaning that there was a random assortment of plain old stuff - a puppet theater, a 30 year old air conditioner, an unopened box of drop ceiling tiles, 3 or 4 different garbage cans full of stuff, etc etc etc. Certainly makes me want to purge my belongings of things I don't use anymore so I don't have to move them to my new apartment next week.

It's also interesting to see how other families interact. Certainly events like holidays and birthdays, but also how decisions are made and the feel of things. Not necessarily good, bad or better, just different. Although it's made me realize that my family (brother and father in particular) move belongings at breakneck speed, like Genghis Khan's small, fast, effective armies. See: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. God, I first read that book 7 years ago but it stuck with me.

Anyway. I'm going to go start my own purge which already includes nearly 2 garbage bags of clothes, 70 books and 15 movies. I tried to be realistic about books I'll read again and books I won't. I probably wasn't as realistic as I could be, but it's a good start. Especially staring down a potential future that doesn't include further research in religion (at least for the next 10 years). Also, will be keeping the book on Genghis Khan. I've read it since that first time 7 years ago so it's a keeper. Keep on the lookout for purged 4 year old homework and college yearbooks.

YDS graduation today - my favorite part of leaving the 'Have. Thinking of you.