Today I dealt with the remaining three socks. One was a black sock that belonged to me. I have no idea where its mate is. It's been missing for months, so I have little hope of finding it. The second gray-heel sock (which I think has belonged to just about everyone in the family) and the third white-heel one both belong to Maribeth but could not be located on my sock-finding mission yesterday.
I decided it was time for the black and gray-heel socks to go. They have been useless long enough and it's time to move on. In their honor, I also decided to purge my closet of clothes that met the same criteria. The first pass-through yielded one shirt. The second pass-through yielded a few more. Finally, after a ruthless and honest third and fourth pass-through, I had three sacks full. After going through my drawers, I ended up with another sack and a half. All the sacks were full of clothes that either I hadn't worn or honestly was never going to wear, or they were hanging in my closet only because that's what one does with clothes. In the end, I had to admit that it was time for them to become someone else's clothes, and they are now in the hands of Goodwill.
The remaining white-heel sock has a reprieve. I will put it in Maribeth's laundry pile and let the sock go live in Maribeth World in her room. Perhaps it will find its mate. Perhaps it will go into sock limbo. Perhaps it will apply to Match.com. Whatever happens, I have returned the responsibility back to its original and rightful owner.
So what are today's socks lessons? Sometimes you have to get rid of things that you think you should keep, in order for someone else can use them. Sometimes you have to stop taking responsibility for stuff that is not really yours and give the responsibility back where it belongs. Sometimes you just have to clear out the clutter one way or another.
As for me, life is good. At this very moment, I have no single socks. They're either matched or moved out or returned home. Sock World is at peace.
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