The Material World

I start this with a quote from my favourite Divine Comedy song: Lost Property. It touches me in a way that no other song has in this area - touches me deeply on loss and redemption. The finding of old treasures, finally, once more and the tears of joy as good old Neil passes through the sheepskin screen to finally find his treasured possessions...

Well now I finally understand what this song means to me...

Postcards and letters
T-shirts and sweaters
Passports and Parkas
Mobiles and chargers
Two tennis rackets
Blue Rizla packets
A new sheep-skin jacket
I lost it all
All through my life there have been
Many rare and precious things
I have tried to call mine
But I just cannot seem
To keep hold of anything
For more than a short time
Possessions of a sentimental kind
They were mine, now they're not
Gym-kits and trainers
Asthma inhalers
Silk-cuts and Bennies
Ten-packs and twenties
C-class narcotics
Antibiotics
The holes in my pockets
I lost it all
All that I'd like is to know
Just where do those lost things go?
When they slip from my hands
Then one night in a dream
I passed through a sheepskin screen
To a green, pleasant land
I found them all piled up into the sky
And I cried tears of joy

Thanks Neil, you absolute star for writing this and voicing what I couldn't have voicedxmtsekd back when I first heard it!

Well as I trawl through the process of packing my things and leaving oncecmore, I realise how materialistic I am in some ways - or rather, how the happiest moments of my life are recorded materially, and the happiest relationships of my life can often be charted through the material.

As much as I have tried to escape from it, I am immensely grateful for it now. Every object carries a memory. Without each and every carefully taken photo, I might not fully remember the love some friends truly felt circle.

Without green tea....

Without baseball caps.....

Without Kevin Smith films and punk rock, where would my life be now?

Without my tinkerbell towel, my fairy brooch, would my memories of love have remained so strong? Probably. But maybe not entirely. Maybe they have helped, on difficult days when all hope was gone, I could look at an object, a photo, and remember love and joy and warmth gone by...