Time to update the description. WSV50 fencer since 2004. Mostly recovered from two meniscus tears in 2006 (not fencing related) and other minor injuries. Focused on improving fencing skills and avoiding injuries. Goal is to qualify for the WSV60 team in 2012.
This is a non-fencing related post that will not be of interest to most viewers. The title is due to the commercial meme running through my head, "What's in YOUR wallet?"
Lately, I find myself buying clothing again because my knee has healed to the point that I can wear things I haven't been able to wear in a while and thus I've been overindulging. However, I've been hit with the reallization that I'm growing older and that anything I buy now could still be in the closet when my children presumably arrive to collect everything after my death.
Yeah... morbid thoughts [backwards R] Us. I'm sick. I'm thinking of these things.
My sisters and I had quite a time clearing out my mother's home during her illness and it's amazing how much clothing she'd accumulated and retained over the years. Thus, I'm looking at each purchase now and wondering, "Do I really want my kids to speculate on what I'm doing with this?"
I pause here to note that my sisters and I did have one SNL skit-like moment when we were clearing out a cedar chest and found lingerie that...well... it just wasn't the kind of stuff that we'd ever envisioned Mother wearing.
So now with each item I'm thinking of buying, I pause to wonder, "What will my kids think of this?" Worse, I'm also wondering, "Will this fit anyone else in the family? Will anyone else want it after I'm gone?"
We are a practical and somewhat oddly frugal family so we have a strong tradition of passing on dead people's clothing. Admittedly, some of the younger generation are not enthused about this and neither of the two grandsons wanted any of their granfather's clothing. [Which I think had far more to do with size and style than it did any feelings about wearing a dead person's clothes.]
What's really giving me pause, though, is the fact that someone might ignore my many and multiple requests that there be NO burial (unless it's at the body farm) and no showinig or fomal ($$$$) funeral and thus that means someone would go through my closet and PICK OUT CLOTHING TO PUT ON ME AFTER I'M DEAD!
When Father died, we put a clean hankerchief in his pocket and his best Stetson in the coffin. We added his masonic items, his favorite tourquoise belt buckle, and his best cowboy boots. We also REMOVED the cross lapel pin that someone with good intentions had added sometime during visitation. [Why DO people do such things?] We did not, however, add his favorite shotgun or similiar items because... well... we're selfish people and we wanted to keep those.
What would my kids pick out for me? The fencing gear? My black Ralph Lauren business suit? My blue jeans and VAXBuster's T-shirt? God forbid, I've got an epee in the house and they know nothing about fencing. I could be buried with an epee!
11-16-2009 10:41 AM