Boxes in the shed

Written 01 June 2012

Even though I’ve had a physically exhausting day (doing family’s laundry by hand, plus clearing old boxes from the shed) and I know I’m really tired, I just can’t seem to fall asleep.

Today I decided to take a load of things to the dump. I do this regularly, but it’s usually stuff for recycling – paper, cans, bottles and plastic containers. Today, however, I started on the boxes of old, old stuff that had been cluttering up the shed for years. Yes, years! When my landlord decided to turn the double garage into a flatlet, I had to move all my boxes out and put them in the shed. That was about five to six years ago. Most of them I hadn’t touched since then.

Funny how, despite the fact that I hadn’t even thought about the contents of the boxes for years (probably much longer than six, because they’d been stored in the garage before), I couldn’t just throw them away – I HAD to look through each one before carting it off to its final destination, the local municipal dump. And what a pleasurable exercise it turned out to be! Sometimes it pays to go with your feelings, and not to over-think things. I discovered essays I’d written at university, as far back as the 1980’s (undergrad). Interesting. I was humbled to see that my marks weren’t always fabulous (funny how time had affected those memories! :-), but impressed that my writing had always been solid. Reading through my post-grad ones, I could see both my strengths and weaknesses as an English Honours student. Aware, for months, of a growing desire to study further (Masters – why’s that term so patriarchal?), I’m even hungrier to tackle that next academic hurdle, stretch myself, bring my life experience into my analyses, learn as much as I can, and find ways to use what I learn to contribute to the development of our country’s youth and women.

Back to the contents of the boxes – I also found programmes of shows I’d been to: operas, musicals, ballets, concerts. Amongst them was the programme of my mom’s 1979 recital at Artscape – then called the Nico Malan Opera House – a groundbreaking (and, admittedly, controversial) performance as the first black woman to do so. (Controversial because, at that time in our country’s history, admission of “Non-white” people to certain venues was made possible by a permit, since the original vision had been to provide the facilities to “Whites” only.) Accompanied by maestro Gordon Jephtas (pianist, conductor, repetiteur, vocal coach), she boldly concluded her show with “We Shall Overcome”. Go, mom!

I came face-to-face with how much of a hoarder I am, when I found my lecture notes and other paraphernalia of my college years, 1980 to 1982, including a booklet containing all the details of the nationwide tour we did! Amazing how much technology has changed since then.


It’s the next day, and I’ve actually typed the last three paragraphs this morning! Sitting at the kitchen table, my favourite writing spot, with my kids joining me after waking up, my daughter full of stories of their recent school camp (Diversity Awareness programme – fascinating and very necessary at their stage of development) and my son explaining in great detail the story he’s writing: the characters, the plot, the setting, the timeline…..! Intense!

And so, with my next blog post already in my head and the title already typed, I sadly have to close the laptop and get on with the daily stuff that moms do. It’s an overcast day, and all I honestly feel like doing is writing and playing my guitar.

And life goes on.