Ten-Finger Exercises

unpoetly

Sorry I have fallen away from haiku-ing this past week. Guess I just haven't felt like it, at least not at the right times to get something down.
I've been working on a story about three adult children summoned to their mother's bedside when she is dying. I was just about to write about her giving the family memorabilia, the letters and assorted things passed down, to the older son, when I discovered a box of postcards and newspaper clippings my grandmother had saved. I don't know what my character will do with them, any more than I know what to do with them myself. Any suggestions?

I just read an article in the newspaper about seven things that we won't have in the future. Can't remember them all, but some of them include books, newspapers, post offices, music, personal items, tv, and privacy. If anybody even cares now about family mementoes, will they in the future? I know my kids are not interested in my china or silver, so what am I to do with it? I know I was puzzled when my grandmother gave me a scarf, called a 'fascinator', that had belonged to her mother. I was about 20. What was I supposed to do with it? I still have it, but no one would know it's special. It doesn't have any real connection for me. I suppose I feel no more connection for the art and cards I made for my mother when I was a little girl. I guess if I had ones she made for her mother, that would be interesting, so maybe I should keep them to pass on. It's a predicament, isn't it? My character, Eleanor, who is giving these things to her son, trusts him to be able to throw them away if he wants to, not to set up a monument for her made of all her things.

***Out of nowhere, Bill, who has the 'manflu' and is coughing and watching tv beside me, saw a commercial that caused him to say,
"That's what men need: for their women to believe in them." I asked him what that meant to him, but he couldn't say, only said he hopes I know. What I know is that it doesn't necessarily mean I believe he's always right. And it's hard to be supportive the way he'd like me to be when he is being so negative, so sure the POTUS is an evil man who is luring us into socialism. On the other hand, I've listened enough that I understand the validity of his fears, even though I don't think they're likely. What I do believe is that he has strong ideas of right and wrong, but I count on the love in his heart to win out.