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We all have a drawer we call the junk drawer. A place where stuff gets tossed because we’re just not ready to part with it. Afraid we may need it at some time in the next fifty years. Maybe. An attachment to an item that probably doesn’t deserve attachment. And then I have the souvenir pen drawer. A curious blend of pens from my travels. (this runs parallel with the snow globe collection) Actually the pens are pretty cool. Some from ships that don’t sail anymore. There’s Pinocchio who was enjoying Firenze before we took him home (unwillingly, he was right in the middle of his afternoon gelato). And then there’s the alligator pen. A favorite pet pen, though have you ever tried writing with an alligator in your hand? It is not very comfortable at all. And you know how the collection starts. Very innocently with one item. The pens and snow globes are small and inexpensive, easy to toss in a suitcase. And then the collection gets obsessive. Every where we go we must get a pen and a snow globe. Friends and relatives are required to add to the collection. “Surprise! Guess what we brought you back from vacation!” And by now it has grown so large that we’ve run out of space for it all and we don’t have the heart to say: “Please no more. No more pens and snow globes” But the collection keeps growing. It now has a life of its own. As for the alligator pen: I will hold him very carefully.
