For Wilshire Baptist Church
If you had just 15 minutes to grab whatever you could out of all your earthly possessions, what would you grab?
That was the impossible challenge presented last weekend to residents of the Crestview Towers condominiums in North Miami Beach, Florida. The building was evacuated and has been deemed unsafe following the horrific collapse of the Champlain Towers condo building a few miles away in Surfside. Crestview will remain closed until it can be recertified and only then after structural and electrical repairs have been made. There is some hope that the residents can return someday, but there also is the possibility that the building will be condemned as was the case for the half of the Champlain building that didn’t collapse. The Crestview residents may lose everything, so that 15 minutes when they were allowed to go back in to grab their stuff was fraught with tough decisions.
So, what would you grab on such short notice? We’ve thought about that at least a little bit at our house. We have a backup hard drive of all our data that’s in a hidden but handy place to be grabbed if we should have to rush out the door. That takes care of most important documents and account information and work projects, as well as digital pictures from the past decade. I have a couple of flash drives that go back another 20 years. But what else would we take if we had to leave in a hurry? Clothing, jewelry, mementos, books, family heirlooms? And out of those categories, what would we choose? I just can’t begin to work that out in my mind.
Maybe we should sit down and make a list. Or maybe we should plan ahead and put it all out on a table that will be the “grab and go table” if we ever need to grab and go? Maybe have boxes or wagons nearby. Many of the Crestview residents went back to their homes with wagons and carts. They weren’t going to be limited by what they could only clutch in their hands.
Maybe the better idea would be to let things go now. Not necessarily give it away or sell it all — although that’s worth considering — but at least let go of it emotionally. After all, none of it will go with us when we die. “Nobody has pockets in heaven,” and “you never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer” are quotes that come to mind.
Case in point: In the attic I have a couple of boxes of stuff that Debra left behind when she passed away. The boxes are what’s left after a winnowing down of all that she owned after I gave away other items to family, friends, churches and charities. I’m glad I kept what I did as remembrances of a life well lived, but guess what? When I die, her stuff will be left behind along with all my stuff.
It would be ridiculous and cruel to say that I envy those people in Florida who had just 15 minutes to grab their stuff. Forcing that decision on anyone is a horrible thing to have to do. But, it does make me think about all the stuff I have and more precisely, all the stuff I don’t really need. Aren’t there people out there who would benefit from some of my stuff? I have some recent anecdotal proof: On separate occasions, I put an old but working lawnmower, a worn but swingable porch swing, and an ice chest with broken hinges out by the curb. All three were gone in less than an hour. There’s more stuff in excellent condition I could give up.
Some would say have a garage sale, but that’s too much work. The one time I did that, the professional garage sale shoppers told me I had things priced all wrong. “This is too high,” they’d say. It was really a driveway sale, and a few times I had to chase people out of the garage behind me who were picking through things I wasn’t selling. Maybe I should have stepped out of the way and let them grab and go.
The bottom line for me is it would be good to let go of more stuff now so that if I’m ever put on a 15-minute clock, the choices would be easier. Better yet should there be no clock at all. It’s the least I can do for whoever will have to clean up after me someday.