For many years, I used to collect corks from favorite bottles of wine. At first it was only natural corks, but as some of my favorite wines started to come with artificial ones, those became part of the mix as well. Then, as I became more obsessive about preserving our memories and record-keeping (see: blog) we began to write little notes on our corks so we’d have some idea about when and why we’d saved them (E.g., Veuve Clicquot cork, “engaged, 12/9/05”). By the time we were ready to move to New York from Los Angeles, we had more corks than I knew what to do with. Ashley suggested we take a photograph and then leave them behind–the first of which I did; I used it for our wedding website. But still I was loathe to throw them away.
One day, when I got home from working at the hospital, Ashley had pared down our corks to just the most significant ones and had placed them in a deep-set frame.
Since then (in part thanks to our smaller living quarters) we’ve both become much stronger when it comes to letting go of objects. But I do still like to keep mementos from great wine and from great times.
I carefully peel off the label, which we keep in a leather notebook, and then pass it off to Ashley in hopes that she will write something (legible–unlike me).
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