READY PLAYER ONE

Daily writing prompt

What would you do if you lost all your possessions?

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I’d start over.

For a lot of people, this is a hypothetical exercise.

My house burned down to the ground when I was 11 years old. Life has been nothing but a series of moves in which I’ve just had to get new stuff and move on. Because when the original break with material possessions happened, it made me not care about any of them. There was nothing I could do to prevent loss, so why try? My car is the first material possession for which I’ve felt an affinity in years. It could all go away tomorrow.

When I think of losing my possessions, I don’t think of misplaced or stolen items. I see sneakers melted to each other. A hanger melted to the clothes hanging in the closet. I see the aftermath of walking through a house after it has already been sprayed by firemen.

The smell never comes out.

Therefore, I am not as careful with material possessions as I should be (at times). It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that I don’t have an illusion that anything is permanent.

When my house burned down, we started again at the beginning. And I’ve kept doing that with every disaster in my life. I am not sure that reacting to everything like your house is burning is healthy. Yet another thing to discuss with my therapist.

I suppose that losing all of your possessions early makes it where it’s just easier losing things all around. Every bit of safety you had was ripped out from under you in terms of the idea that possessions are safe in houses. The pendulum has swung too far in terms of not caring about losing my possessions over the years, because there are several things I’ve given away or didn’t pay enough attention to that have walked off.

Alternatively, I am happier having close to nothing because managing possessions is irritating and overwhelming. Losing things becomes akin to a video game reset instead of a major life event.