“You make bad decisions.”

[rynling]

I love The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I read it at least once or twice a year. I find Marie Kondo’s worldview to be soothing, and I enjoy the stories she tells about herself. I also appreciate Cathy Hirano’s translation, which vastly improves on the original and is nothing short of brilliant.

I started reading the book again this morning before I went out on a run, and when I got back it was no longer on the table where I’d left it. It wasn’t on its usual place on the bookshelf either. In fact, it was on an entirely different bookshelf altogether.

So I went to my husband and was like, “Okay what the fuck.”

He was like, “I don’t like it when you read that book. You make bad decisions.”

I was like, “I don’t touch your things, I have never thrown away anything that belongs to you.”

And he was like, “I know, but I don’t like it when you throw away your things. I love all your things, because they remind me of you.”

That’s probably one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me, but I’m still getting ready to throw away a bunch of shit. Mainly books that belong to a genre that I’m going to call “Men Write About Video Games,” and also possibly my account on DeviantArt.

Comments

[runicmagitek]

DAWWWWWWW THAT WAS SO SWEET! 😭💕 all I know about your husband comes from your posts regarding him, but it always warms my heart.

I am also all for Men Write About Video Games texts living permanently in the trash. Yes, a good decision, that one.

[rynling]

My husband is very sweet but very clueless about 99% of internet culture.

To give an example, he only has a vague understanding of what fanfiction is and tends to use the word in strange ways. The other day, apropos of nothing, he told me that he has “a fanfiction” that two of his MA students are dating. I understood what he meant – that he suspects these two kids might be dating but doesn’t know for sure and doesn’t want to ask – but I was like, “...okay, sure. Tell me about this fanfiction of yours.”

[runicmagitek]

I took max psychic damage from reading this, but also am highly amused by his idea of "a fanfiction". Wow. What a trip.

Also relevant and wanted to share - thanks to you sharing your husband's shenanigans, I have the occasional mental image of Bowser and Peach living their best lives as high school students a la Azumanga Daioh and it makes me smile.

[lassarina]

Oh, that's absolutely lovely, but also, yeah, "Let the dead things go" as a friend of mine said. Sometimes you just don't need it anymore.

[rynling]

Truer words have never been spoken, and there is nothing more dead in this world than the drawings I posted on DeviantArt back in 2012. One day I will also gather the courage to delete my LiveJournal. First, however, I need to admit that it still exists, and I can’t quite bring myself to do that just yet.

[renegadefolkhero]

You know, I thought I had the gist of KonMari, having seen a bit of the reality show and being familiar with the litmus, "Does it spark joy?" but I got this book from the library and:

1. This is a philosophy, and how dare I presume to know anything.
2. I am applying this immediately.
3. I seem to recall Twitter getting upset Marie Kondo told them to throw away all their books and I'm trying to figure out how that became the takeaway.
4. The genre you mentioned is best vanquished with fire.

Anyway, thanks friend!

[rynling]

It’s a sweet little book, right? I really enjoy Marie Kondo’s stories about how she was a strange little kid, as well as her stories about her adult clients who have weird relationships with their parents.

When I get ready to tackle my next longterm writing project, I’m thinking of putting together a 40k-word novella exactly like this book, except with the implicit understanding that ghosts are real. I’ll call it The Death-Changing Magic of Tidying Up... or something.