I made another breakthrough today.

Broke another bond.

Lifted a little further out  of the gelatinous ooze from whence I have come.

Moved a little further away from being my parents.

What is this tremendous breakthrough, this monumental step, you ask?

I opened a package containing . . . a PEZ dispenser.

Yes, a PEZ dispenser.

Did you know that that’s really hard to do? Well, not for the average person, I’m sure. But growing up, I was always told that those things are worth so much more still in their packages, and if I kept them in their packages then I could get lots of money for them some day.

Such is the mantra of my father, king of the trinkets. And let me assure you: for all the things that will “one day be worth something,” I don’t think he has ANYTHING that will ever be worth something. A heap of Things that will One Day be Worth Something can only get so big before that man’s treasures are everyone else’s trash. Especially when said heap has bugs and cat mess and rotting food and who knows what else in it.

I recognized the facts of the above paragraph years ago. I was doing well, I told myself. I only had one packaged PEZ dispenser. And even that wasn’t entirely packaged. The very bottom had been opened to get out the candy, then glued shut again to keep the PEZ dispenser from damage. Nevermind that the package itself was dented and bent beyond what any logic deems “salvagable.” The point was, it was still packaged.

But today, while someone was helping me take the first steps in organizing my desk – my mountain of stuff, my pet place to keep like my parents’ house – I opened the PEZ dispenser.

Straight-up honest: between throwing several things away that I might (somewhere upon some time in an unknown kingdom in a galaxy far away) one day use, and opening the PEZ dispenser, I’m feeling a bit of anxiety. But the fact remains: I did it.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I say what I’m about to say with full reverence for the man and what he fought for. I am all for fighting for freedom. Today, my own fight for freedom – not against oppression between people who happen to be differently pigmented, but against the hoarding that was deeply trained into me and that I am determined to train back out of myself – advanced just a little.

I shall overcome.

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Please note: I do not approve of swearing, and will not approve comments with excessive swears, including using the name of God as an expletive, but if I receive a comment with a swear or two in an otherwise acceptable comment, I will still approve it. The views expressed in the comments are the views of the person sharing them, not my own, and will be approved based on respect and readability [if I can’t figure out what you’re trying to type, it’s not getting approved] rather than agreement.