Just Stuff

When I was a teacher, if a student wrote a paper with the word “stuff” in it, I would mark through it with a red pen and ask, “Just what does the word ‘stuff’ mean?” The writer in me just doesn’t think the word is very descriptive. If something is important enough to mention, it should be important enough to describe.

I was reminded of that word yesterday when I ran into some cousins of mine who were preparing for an estate sale. They had been working in the basement of their mother’s home cleaning. Boxing and unboxing items in preparation of the sale.

Hearing what they were doing reminded me of when I had to do the same thing. The attic in my parents house was where everyone stored things. For years I dreaded the task of cleaning it out. Finally we sold the house and when I could put it off no longer, I cleaned it out. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Why? First, because there was so much “stuff” up there. Years and years of things were kept just in case someone needed (or wanted) them. Items ranged from the uniform I wore as a baton twirler in the fourth grade, to books my mother had used in her classroom when she began teaching over twenty years before! But the main reason it was so hard was because I am a sentimental softie who is 53 years old and still misses her parents and grandparents even though it’s been many years since their deaths. I opened every box of photographs and mementos and cried over them all. Yes, I remembered the good times and some of the tears were tears of happiness, but a lot of them were “I miss you” tears.

Not long ago I read a story about a couple whose house burned down. Their grown children drove for miles to be with them in their hour of need. In the space of just a few hours they had lost everything.

“Mom,” the daughter said, “all your pictures, your silverware, and china. It’s all gone!”

The mother wiped her daughter’s tears from her cheeks, looked around at her family, and smiled. “Oh, honey, everything I need is standing right here next to me. Everything else is just stuff.”

And that’s what “stuff” really means. If we can live without it and simplify things for our children and grandchildren after we are gone, shouldn’t we?