Ten years have gone by since I wrote my post entitled “Three Idiots“. It explains how surprised I was to put away a new CD on my shelf, only to discover that I already owned it. (If you want to know the meaning of “three idiots”, you will have to read it!)
The CD in question was Ultimate Manilow, a compilation of Barry Manilow’s greatest hits. Barry Manilow was a huge favorite of mine back in my college days, but I probably haven’t listened to his CD since I bought it (the second time) ten years ago.
Barry was back in the news recently because he has co-written a musical that made it to Broadway. After watching him being interviewed on a theater program, I got the urge to listen to his music. I loaded the album tracks onto my phone, since I do my most focused listening when I am out of the house walking around New York City.
The opportunity to listen to it arose last Friday when I had a 25-minute walk between activities. I thoroughly enjoyed going down memory lane. I found myself remembering most of the words (as well as all the oohs and aahs in the arrangements) and of course I sang along.
I couldn’t help but think what a shame it was that I hadn’t listened to it in ten years. We love to collect new items, and the newest and shiniest ones are what usually get our attention. If we are going to continue to own stuff, I think we owe it to ourselves to take it out and dust it off every now again to make sure it’s worth holding on to. In this case, it definitely was, but not everything is.
What have you been holding onto for years that you haven’t enjoyed or even looked at? Are things that used to be meaningful for you still meaningful? One of my organizing principles is “One in, one out.” Every time you add something new to one of your collections, take a look at what you have and see what you are ready to part with. You may discover old favorites that are worth reintroducing to your life now.
As for me, I plan to load more of my old music onto my phone and have fun next time I take a long walk.
