403 boxes of our lives

Pickford’s Moving Company just pulled away from the curb. They were here for 4 days to pack up our lives into 403 boxes and then for one day to move them into a sea-tight metal container. The contanier will reappear at our storage facility in 4 to 6 weeks, unless the ship sinks. I wonder what – or if - I would miss much?

As I look over the 14 pages of inventory that catalogues the 403 boxes I am amazed by:

1. How quickly your life can be put in a box – or at least the stuff. The bigger question of course is how many boxes of memories have I collected over the past 6 years. Memories are a lot cheaper to move, and they don’t strain your back to move around. I can hear the truck down on the loading dock backing up, “beep beep beep, incoming pallet of memory boxes, remember, lift with your legs, not your back!”

2. I married a Jewish guy and we have 5 boxes of Christmas decorations but only half a box with menorahs, haggadah’s and a plastic Seder plate.

3. Josh at 11 years old has 18 boxes of stuff; Simon at 7 years has 6. Is there some sort of algorithm that works out an estimation of accumulation by year of life?

4. All we need for the year of our life in the RV fits in 8 suitcases - and half of that we can live without.

5. How often I salivate thinking about the ship being abducted by pirates. What is the resale value on the Somalian black market for vats of legos? Crate and Barrel dining room chairs? 47 stuffed animals?

6. How much money, time and energy are spent on the transference of stuff -- moving it from store to home to shelf to box to container to storage facility to new home, etc..

7. All of the pioneers, immigrants and refugees that have moved by either choice, fear, force, love, or war. How lucky am I to be moving by choice, with options...

But what I can’t put in a box are my friends. The walks on the Heath that seem so natural. The smell of the roses. The green grocer on the high street that sells the bags of tomatoes for 1 pound. The sneaky walkways that make getting around this city so delightful and old worldly.

More for the memory box in my mind where there is always room and there is no charge for additional weight.