Bach, in general...

Look, kids, I've made an executive decision regarding this listening adventure.  I have several albums of music composed by good ole' J.S.B.  I don't feel equipped to really delve into what's good about them.  It's Bach, for pete's sake!!!  It's wonderful and momentous and gorgeous and I love it.  He wrote for God.  Whether you believe in that higher being, or not, a man that has that kind of faith and that kind of talents produced some astonishing work for his big guy in the sky.  And there are, like, 4 albums right in a row.  Look, believe me when I tell you that of all the music I own, J.S.B. does not get neglected.  Either on my iTunes or my cd player.  So, rather than going over each by each, I thought I'd just share with y'all what I did, today and tonight as I listened to hours and hours of Bach.  

I went through stuff.  Papers and photos and such.  This is another one of my summer projects.  To go through the boxes stuck up on the shelf in my closet and determine what I actually want to keep versus what I've been holding onto because I feel guilty about tossing out that hallmark card signed, "with love, Jenny".  Who's Jenny?  Catch my drift?  And, as is expected in these situations, I got all caught up reading things and laughing at things and crying over things.  Happy to report that I did not shed one tear over the person in my previous life.  Just a little sigh out of respect for and a bit of "gee, glad I got outta that one!".  Still, what does one do with the photos and the letters?  Keep them?  Chuck 'em?  Any thoughts on this are welcome...

I have to say that I am more than a little impressed with my letter writing habits of the past.  I have so many letters from friends and family.  I am in the habit of making copies of the letters that I sent, as well, so it's like I have the WHOLE story!!!!  When I read in one letter, "I can't believe you were able to get through the gate", I don't have to wonder what gate is being marveled at.  I have the other side of the story right in front of me!!!  (There was no story about getting through a gate.  I was just trying for a little dramatic flare.)  I'm floored by the amount of emails I wrote and printed while "working" at my corporate job stint.  I guess once I got the hang of sluffing off at work, I was super good at it.  Why do I keep all of this correspondence?  I don't know.  I'm a sentimental sap, that's all...  I have journals starting from when I was eight years old, too.  I'm not the most consistent journal writer, but I do keep one.  (I admit that I have never gotten over the one that disappeared... summer 1988-1990, sometime?  I try not to think on it, too much... it's so sad.)  Some of the content is very difficult to read over, and so I don't.  Some of it is terribly embarrassing--but it's for my eyes only, so it who cares, right?--Some of it is really fun.  I had to call my baby sister and read to her a bit I wrote regarding her tonsillectomy.  Good times.  

The next step would be to organize the letters, emails, postcards, etc. in some kind of loose chronological order.  Hey!  I could be my own first archival project!  Though, I think I'll hold off on that for a little while.  This was a pretty big day and somewhat emotionally draining, despite the pleasant moments--of which there were many.

All the while Bach's glorious creations were the soundtrack to my day.  I only left the house to go to yoga, tonight, and was right back at it when I returned.  And, yes, I did manage to throw out a couple of boxes worth of gen-u-ine garbage as well as another box for the goodwill.  (I've quite a collection of stuff to donate, at this point.  Thank goodness Shawn's renting a car, again, when he gets here on Thursday...)

Bach rocks.  Got it?  Good.