Day 17: Prized posessions

If your house were on fire, what things would you grab on your way out the door, obviously assuming that your beloved people and animals were all safe? I remember seeing this question posed a few years ago on a tumblr, and this morning when I showed my son some of the photographic answers, he said, "I don't see a wallet anywhere!" Ha! He goes straight for the practical, while I am all sentimental.

For the most part, my photos are my most valuable items. I'd be dragging out armloads of photo albums, boxes of prints, and computer hard drives. (I would obviously die in the attempt to rescue all of my memories.)

For the purpose of a journal entry, let's expand the question beyond what you could carry out the door in a crisis. What are your prized possessions? You can:

-Make a list of all your favorite things.

-Tell the details and stories behind them.

-Write about where you'd like them to end up when you don't need them anymore, in other words, bequeath them

-Ask your kids, spouse, parents, etc. the same question and compare your lists

I bought this painting in Barcelona in 2001. It definitely makes the list. 

You can see the rest of my tiny art collection here.

I'd also include my journals, cringe-inducing thought the older ones can be, my wedding ring, and letters from my days of dating Matt. (Yes, we wrote each other actual letters, which kinda makes it sound like we started our relationship in the 1940s.) One more of my prized possessions is my scrap afghan shown here, where I talked about not being able to keep nice things out while my kids are young. Pretty much still true three years later.