Sometimes, I suppose we cling to things and ideas far beyond their useful life. Perhaps it's due to a sense of nostalgic attachment; perhaps we just want to continue with the failing but familiar, rather than engage in something unfamiliar that feels likely to fail... simply because it is unknown.
I don't know.
I do know that I often cart both items and ideas around, far beyond their natural usefulness. Letting go of them is hard, perhaps because it feels like admitting to a failure of sorts. Even if it is merely a failure to follow through on an idea... or a failure to put some item to use, even if whatever activity it was acquired for has long passed.
Sometimes what follows us around are lifelessons from our formative years, fueled by the echoes of admonitions from long dead parents. I recognize it when it happens, and invariably end up wondering why they are still pulling the puppet strings, from beyond the grave.
Regardless, letting go of certain things and ideas is not as simple as we might think... even though we — at least on a superficial level — sincerely believe that we want to.
"Family stuff" is one thing I often struggle to leave behind. Perhaps it's the product of having parents who were almost obsessed with the importance of things we had.
"This teapot is 'very good,' you should hang on to it in the future!"
I ended up with a bunch of stuff from my parents' house after they passed away, and that reluctance to let go was fueled by past echoes insisting that I spend time and energy making sure that I sold every single thing, rather than merely donating it to the charity shop.
Because, you know, it was all "very good..."
Alas, the reality was that most of the stuff was not only NOT very good, it was often near worthless because all those spendy upscale trinkets were simply not relevant the way they were in the 1960s.
Mostly, though, I ended up dwelling on the whole issue of "letting go" in the context of my reluctance to let go and end business ventures that are struggling.
Again echoes of the implications of failure ring out from the past.
Not obvious failure, but the kind of voluntary failure you encounter when you are involved in some venture that's draining your energy and enthusiasm for life because it is not going anywhere, but at the same time it is not exactly failing, either.
Which is surprisingly many business propositions.
I have struggled along for far too long, often with the words "nobody respects a quitter!" in the back of my mind. Perhaps not as valuable a lifelesson when you're in a situation that is slowly bleeding your soul dry...
It has gotten a little easier to let go, as time goes by... particularly with respect to ideas I know "could work" but I just don't have time to develop them. There's no point in "saving them for later" because it's unlikely that I'll ever have time.
Just let go!
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Created at 2026.01.26 01:22 PST
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