Must be teardrops

The box with clippings of my food column sits in the middle of the bedroom floor where it has been for more than a week. The box also contains letters from readers and some recipes from a holiday food contest I conducted for five years. I put the box in the tornado closet the day after I was laid off. Now I face either tossing it or putting it on a shelf in another closet. Sort of rotating stock in the hopes one day it will be gone.

No Pulitzer sits on my desk. In the kitchen cabinet rest several mugs commemorating my perfect attendance at work for several years running. Hidden away in one of the closets, two employee of the month plaques. All the "we are family, we value our employees" turned out a bold faced lie. So why keep reminders of that time? Because the box represents a body of work, the reason for being for that chunk of my life. Once I am gone, no one will want some old yellow newspapers.

I hope I am not pushiing myself on people who think I am crazy but are too polite to say anything. I am just sad.

Later, Dude.