So I cried a little bit.

My mom, who likes to help me whenever she can, suggested that instead of getting a storage unit, I put some of my things in my sister's shed, and others, like my very fragile first editions and Stephen King collection, in her condo while I'm out of the country.  She is leaving for North Carolina on Thursday for the summer, so we went down yesterday to clean out the shed and bring her a few boxes of books.  I packed my first editions of Hemingway, my personalized, signed copy of Jaws by Peter Benchley, assorted other signed books and about half of my SKs.  Then I sat down on my couch and cried. 

I feel silly for crying over something material, especially since I pride myself on not getting to attached to "things".  But this is different.  Each one of the books I packed this weekend has a significance to me - the Tucker Max that was the first book my husband bought me, the SK novel that I read aloud to my dad after his first stroke when he was in rehab, my great-grandmother's New Testament in German that she received on her confirmation so many years ago.  These are part of my history, my past.  It felt like giving up my past for my future, although I trust that my mother will keep my precious books safe for me. 

I hear it's hard to find books in Abu Dhabi.  Wonderful old bookstores and secondhand paperback shops apparently don't exist.  I hope that's not true, because as many times as someone has told me to buy a Kindle and download my favorites, I just can't bring myself to do it.  I love the feel of books, the smell of the paper, the ability to take them just about anywhere and not worry if they get splashed while I'm doing the dishes, dropped because I'm carrying a baby, a book and a laundry basket upstairs, or even outright destroyed, because they were left too close to the tide line while I was swimming in the sea. 

Let's not lose sight of giving up the tangible for the intangible.  Most of us prefer our flesh and blood friends to Facebook buddies, cold hard cash to Bitcoins, and a real life hug to a virtual one.  Keep books alive!  Keep people real!  Hug your friends in real life and give them a real smile.  Shake your students' hands, high five them, fist bump them.  Don't keep yourself at a distance.