Taking nails out of walls

It isn't the boxes.  It isn't paint and joint compound.  It isn't leases or mortgages or contracts.  It isn't calling in favors or offering people pizza and beer to carry stuff.  It isn't sitting on the floor, ordering delivery or wondering where the plates are.  I have memories of all of these things from my moves and the moves of others, but they are not what I think of when I think of moving.

It's taking nails, screws, hooks, and fasteners out of walls.  From dorm rooms, to apartments, to offices, to houses, looking around for the hardware that was used to hang posters, diplomas, degrees, plaques, mirrors, hooks, shelves, prints, and shadow boxes.  Removing the claim you staked on the property.  Pulling memories from the wall.  Patching the holes that were made long ago but have been hidden.

Because someone else will come.  Someone else will drive a nail into the wall.  They deserve the right to choose where to put the nail.  They will have memories to hang on the wall.  They will make the place their home.

You carry your memories with you.  Some may never hang on a wall again.  But when you arrive at a new location, you will not look around and see nails sticking out of the wall.  Chances are good someone else boxed up their memories and left you a clean canvas.  You know what to do.

Novelty and change

I have probably mentioned that I do not fear change.  I consider change a paradoxical constant.  This is empowering living in the time period I do.  I have seen a fear of change cripple so many people.

However, there are two sides to everything.  Chasing novelty has probably contributed to the destruction of several marriages.  Others see stability, order, and constancy as ideals and equate change with chaos.  I often find myself basing decisions on whether or not I have already experienced something.  Boredom has a very negative effect on me.

I have been lucky.  My desire for change has never effected my relationships.  Human beings are far too complex to ever bore me or at least the humans I am drawn too are.  I feel sorry for any human you would describe as "simple".

I find myself once again seeing repetition, continuing a pattern, and my mind is rebelling.  I find myself looking at the variables and deciding which to change.  I do not consider any of the variables off-limits.  "Dropping everything" and "throwing caution to the wind" are inspiring phrases to me.

It may pass.  It often has.  The variables have a habit of changing on their own.  I hope they do again.  The universe is more creative than I am.  But, don't be too surprised if I "suddenly" do something "crazy".