Wednesday, April 04, 2007

THIRTYSEVEN YEARS OF SAVING

Today as the weather was snowy and cold, and being it is a Saturday, I decided to clean my studio and get a leaner look. After 41 years in the advertising business, there was a lot to purge.

The first thing I took was a deep breath, and secondly was to ask myself if I really wanted to do this. Being how I wasn’t talking to myself, I decided to ignore me and do it anyway.

TLW (The Little Woman) sat somewhere in the back of my mind saying things like: “It’s about time” or “What took him so long?” or worst still: “Better him than me.”

I felt that if I was to complain about the mess in #2 Son’s room, I had better walk the walk. But where do I start to clean up the accumulated clutter? The scanning area was calling out: “Me, me first”, my desk was saying: “Don’t listen to him, do me first” and my storage area was yelling: “No way Jose, over here.” Even the bookcases were in chorus begging my attention. The fax closet just glared at me as if to say “GET OVER HERE YOU.”

The Chinese have an old saying that goes: “The longest journey starts with the first step.” How true, as I began over the scanner, pulling down CDs and disks, blowing dusts off and thinking: “Won’t all this dust kill me?” I sat in my chair and a gentle sob came over me as I ask God to take me before next year when this project would be completed. But no, God wants to see how this all plays out, too.

Folks, we are talking about three computers and a printer, scanner not to mention modems, routers, servers and monitors, hundreds of floppy discs, DVDs, CDs and a couple of other storage devices that number in the dozens, all with information on them that I am reluctant to throw out, but I just know I will never need again. Then the e-mail came, requesting my services for a couple of related logo designs that they needed for April. Suddenly the inspiration came to me like a revelation, a glorious boost, a sign from God. I did it, I closed the door to the studio and thought: “I’ll need all my strength to design” so I got a donut and coffee instead.

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