Twenty-Four Single Earrings

Day 209: Twenty-Four Single Earrings

For the life of me, I cannot keep track of objects. Keys, purses, reading glasses. Books, shoes, to-do lists. Socks, cell phones, sunglasses. I am constantly looking for lost things.

A few years ago, my sister gave me the gift of a dozen sets of dangling bead earrings. She made them herself. I use the word "set" intentionally. These were not pairs of earrings, but sets of three.

A special gift, for many reasons. Not least, because the sets of three were a signal: she sees me. She knows me.

She won't take it personally when the earrings begin to go missing.

Oh, I've set up systems. I've tried mindfulness training. I've tried getting duplicates (a pair of reading glasses on every end table!). I've tried having only one (with only one, perhaps I'll value it enough to know where it is!). I've tried racks and hooks and boxes.

Nothing works.

The trouble is, once an object has lost its immediate usefulness, my mind immediately turns to the next thing. Once the door is unlocked, the key has become completely irrelevant. Forgotten.

Rich tells me there are multiple intelligences. I believe I'm lacking in the intelligence category that allows a person to keep track of objects. No matter how hard I try, I just don't get it. I've got new sympathy for people who can't do math.

I'm sure you've figured out the end of this story: earrings in sets of three are thoughtful and touching, but for an object idiot, the outcome is inevitable. Delayed, but inevitable: single earrings. And if you love your earrings, it's hard to get rid of them.

The good news is, I've made a little progress as I've grown older, and stayed in the same house for over a decade. My purse is almost always hanging from the kitchen doorknob, a few steps from the side door where I usually enter. If it's not there, most likely I came in by a different door, near which I'll find it. My keys are most always in my purse, where I drop them reflexively when the door is unlocked. My eyeglasses are bright orange, so I can usually spot them from a distance, even if I don't have them on. My cell phone rings if you call it.

And, best of all, I've discovered that you can buy 200 plastic earring backs from Michael's for only $2.99. This has at least slowed the attrition rate for dangling earrings, by reducing the likelihood that they fall off unnoticed during the day. Now I just have to remember to hang them on the little earring rack that Sam made for me in eighth grade shop class.

Progress.