I married a bone collector.
This revelation came to light several months ago when I went looking for a key, opened a drawer and discovered a pile of teeth.
It turns out my wife’s been stashing all the pearly whites our kids have lost. Yep, I’m in love with an undercover bone collector.
I know teeth aren’t really bones but they might as well be. They look like them. They’re just as hard. The big difference is that used teeth have created an underground economy.
Inside this black market we ask kids to hide their teeth under pillows. Then we wait until they pass out so we can trade some fangs for cash.
Go to sleep child so I can reward you for your expendable body parts.
Bone collecting runs in my wife’s family, too.
Everyone was at my mother-in-law’s house this past Thanksgiving when my niece squealed something awful. She’d discovered a long lost box of molars and incisors.
My mother in-law couldn’t confidently confirm who they belonged to. I pray she knows their original owner.
I asked my mother-in-law why she kept them?
She said kids like looking at old teeth. This made me wonder how many Chiclet-gazing events my wife attended growing up in that house.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother-in-law despite her tooth collection. It’s just hard for me to understand why people hold onto some stuff.
I have a friend who saved every one of his high school notebooks, and I had a father who never parted with anything including old newspapers.
I COLLECT STUFF, TOO
I hoard ideas. But unlike pre-owned teeth, I believe ideas are actually worth something. I’ve got pages upon pages of story ideas, blog ideas, and business ideas.
One of these ideas transformed into a new project (a Mastermind Group) over the past several months. It’s been ready to launch for weeks except I kept panicking every time I thought about actually starting it.
You see, I’m putting myself out there to get it going. It’s something I’ve never done before, and I’m terrified I’ll fail leading my fellow participants.
So I’m obviously a fear collector, too.
Just last Sunday, I feared attending a funeral. It was for the father of one of my best friends.
This father’s home served as my home-away-from-home during my late teens. His passing was totally unexpected just like my Pop’s sudden death.
I don’t like dealing with feelings and this funeral would require their attendance. So during the drive there I listened to Steven Pressfield’s Do The Work to try and get my mind off everything.
But panic emerged within minutes as I considered how long I’d waited to launch my new project. Then Pressfield’s Do The Work got my attention again. Because it said that when you’re feeling panicked, it often means you’re on the precipice of something great.
I hope that’s true in this case.
LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE COLLECTED
I bet you’ve got a bunch of ideas somewhere. Maybe they’re saved to a computer or hand-written on the page. Maybe they’re mapped to your brain. Either way, I bet you’ve got some.
When’s the last time you took inventory of them?
Is there one big idea that you’ve tucked away? Are you scared to peek because you’ll learn it now looks eerily similar to a box of decaying teeth?
Yep, that’s a nasty thing to visualize except that’s the point.
I began to despise looking at my new project because I knew I wasn’t doing anything with it. I wasted a month positioning that project as a panic attacking beast.
I feel silly because it took the celebration of a good man’s life to help this man live true to himself.
I’m learning it’s a wonderful thing to collect ideas but it doesn’t mean much if they stay locked in a drawer. Especially the scary ideas because they’re often the most valuable. Also, it doesn’t take long for them to get old and ugly.
I believe my mother-in-law and wife loved and appreciated all those teeth at the time they were archived. But years later, they don’t mean as much because no one ever appreciates them.
I don’t see much value in that.
(Note: Teeth are a depreciating asset in the black market.)
CREATE YOUR OWN UNDERGROUND ECONOMY
I encourage you to take the next step with just one of your ideas you’ve been holding onto.
Maybe it’s asking someone for feedback on your story. Or maybe it’s you finally pushing the launch button on that big idea you’ve been too scared to explore.
Either way, it’s definitely time to do the work if you already know the next step you should take.
On Thursday I emailed the Mastermind participants announcing the launch plan. We’ve already experienced a hiccup. This caused me to panic once again.
I’m working to resolve the issue and believe it’s going to work out just fine.
But more than anything, I’m excited that one of my big scary ideas is coming to life regardless of how messy it may be.
Do you have a warehouse of ideas to sift through? Are you open to taking the next step with just one of them, big or small? Are you a bone collector or did you marry one? Holler in the comments below and let me know!
Image courtesy of realinemedia /Depositphotos.com
Great post, David! We collect teeth, too, and have actually been talking about them a lot this week. I have a little baggie of them sitting by my front door. Cuz, naturally, that’s where they should be. As for the ideas – I love your call to action. And, I believe most ideas start out messy. In fact, my whole life is messy. I get stressed out when I try to make it neat.
Hey Jo. My wifey keeps her stash in a little baggie, too. But didn’t you know teeth go in the jewelry box’s door? Well, they do if you ask my wife.
And it’s good to know we’re on the same page with making a mess of stuff. Thanks for swinging by!
Jo, and David, they have cute little boxes for sale in Japan, specifically for keeping your children’s teeth.
See exhibit A:
http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/ruburey/70507.html?sc_e=slga_pla
Please do not forward that link to my wife. 😉
I’m only here to shudder publicly (in delight) at the phrase “I’m married to a bone collector.”
Proud to say that I have a list of art that needs making, and I’m making it. Writing songs. Publishing mysteries.
Recording songs? Did someone ask if I’m RECORDING my music? Waddya mean, hoarding my music?
Troublemaker.
[Joel exits stage left to go search the cupboards for bone collections he can use in his music]
Hey Joel. Glad it’s out there and you made it public. Ha, we all got stuff it we pry deep enough, huh? Thanks for sharing all around brotha.
This is one of my favorite posts, David. Admittedly, I share your wife’s obsession. Only I hoard puppy teeth. Crazy, right? Back to your point…yes, yes, yes! I’m moving toward my goal of producing some non-fiction, and today, I scratched flash fiction off my list. An idea…a budding serial killer, actually…wouldn’t let me rest until I wrote his sliver in time. Hence, my Body Farm post. I was getting in touch with my inner psycho. LOL
Oh my gravy! Puppy teeth? I love how crazy that is!
And I would categorize you as crazy. I can be friends with crazy, but psycho requires me to worry about you removing my teeth while they’re still in my mouth. 😉
That was a cool post, guy! I liked how you segued from the teeth collecting to story ideas. I’m like you, I’ve got a bunch of story ideas, but I’m very nervous as to how I should proceed with writing them. One thought that has piqued my interest as of late is writing pulp fiction novels. I think it would be fun to do that, but I’m worried that the ideas might be kind of cheesy. But, the only way to find out is to dive in and write, right? Anyways, as for collecting, I’ve collected quite a few die-cast model cars over the years, and now I’m thinking about selling a few of them, but I’m wondering if it would be a waste of time to sell them on EBay. Only time will tell.
Thanks for the kind words brotha.
And it’s normal to be nervous and unsure considering you’ve probably haven’t written anything like them before. And maybe the first few pulp fiction novels will be cheesy? But you’re spot on with what you said about diving in and writing.
And that’s interesting! You collected some die-cast models, huh? Let me know what you end up doing with them!
Such an attention-grabbing post! It’s awesome that you share your vulnerability to feelings of fear, dread, emotions. I don’t save teeth, lol, but I appreciate all the points on having the courage to push through.
I just recently blogged about this topic – having a story sit so long that I question the value of continuing it (it has not be sitting idle – it’s been scratching to be let out for years upon years – I continually “collect” phrases and turns of words, and write random scenes for it…) But it really comes down to courage to write it. I even found a book called “Courage to Write”, read it a couple of years ago and then wrote some… and finished 2 OTHER stories. In fact, my life is full of purposeful projects! It’s just easier to do ANYTHING ELSE but this thing.
I guess we’re all familiar with “failures make great lessons”, but writing uses everything we have to give and can affect us on different levels than a lot of other things we might fail at. (mental, emotional and physical effects)
I’ll check out your link to Steven Pressfield’s ‘Do The Work’, and look forward to hearing more about your Mastermind project! At least it’s a group/team effort, so it’s not all on you, lol.
Thanks so much for the compliment! I really try to put myself out there because it helps us better connect. Heck, two of the Mastermind participants are subscribed to my site so they learned my fears the same way you just did.
I love the term “purposeful project.” Very cool. It definitely looks like you’ve got your own collection of stuff going on, too. And I know the feeling because I’m almost ALWAYS compelled to do ANYTHING ELSE.
Last, Do The Work is awesome. All of Pressfield’s stuff is great. And yes, the Mastermind is not all on me. I’ll just be organizing and facilitating the meetings. Ha, that’s why I had to feel silly for making it such a bigger deal than it was.
Thanks again for swing by and dropping a comment. I really appreciate it!
Great post, David. Thoroughly enjoyed the humorous discourse on discarded teeth. Would you believe that, being the family historian, I’ve got a collection of my baby teeth, my kids’, my mother’s, two aunts’, three cousins and my uncle’s gold fillings that he kept after getting all his teeth pulled for dentures?! At least I count sell them to some gold buyer, I guess. But I also collect family memorabilia like all the old family photo albums FROM EVERY BRANCH OF THE FAMILY, knick-knacks from every trip we took anywhere (being in the military for 22 years means we moves about 12 times), and items like homemade quilts from grandmothers and great-grandmothers, a blanket from the civil war (a union issue blanket that a confederate ancestor stole from a dead union soldier and carried throughout the war, lovingly decorating it with 9 bullet holes while keeping his own skin intact), and a host of other items that my daughter refuses to allow me to throw out! Do I collect things????????
And, yes, I have a whole filing cabinet full of old story ideas, not to mention the digital files I’ve kept.
Hello Cheri. Thanks for sharing so much intel! I’m both in awe and scared of your teeth collection (including the gold fillings). 😉
And wow, you really do have an archive of family stuff. I can get with that. I just hope someone gets to look at and check out all the cool stuff you’ve collected.
And I hope you’re working on at least one of your story ideas? Preferably the one you’re most excited about? Let me know!
I am in the process of decluttering my various hoarded/collected things. I think sometimes they are a way of trying to hold onto something that is passing. The value of grieving and letting go is that it opens the space for living in the present. Great post. Loved it:)
Hey Bernadette. Thanks for sharing your take. I think you’re right about why we hold onto some stuff. Also, congrats and good luck with the decluttering. Thanks again!
LOL, just these comments would make great story fodder…
Yep, and I bet there are some scarier ones out there, too! Thanks!
Great post! Both funny and encouraging. 🙂
I had a collection of unfinished story ideas which didn’t work stored in my computer and in my mind. And I had a finished story which I loved, which I had written back when I was 13 years old. Last year, I decided to rewrite it and try to get it published. But when I started to read it… It was terrible. Really. Bad clichés everywhere, a weak protagonist, a terrible end. I don’t know what I expected. I was a child when I wrote it!
But it is my dream to be a published writer, and that was the only finished story I had! For one month or two, I surrendered to despair. Until I decided to visit my collection of ideas and I noticed many of them were very good ideas, which didn’t work just because they lacked some elements, some context. Then I had an idea: what if I get all these story ideas together and try to make them complement each other?
Now, I have a complex and (my friends and beta readers say) interesting plot, which merges 4 of the story ideas I had in my collection. I am facing some trouble with it, but I am havinf fun. And I am sure I will finish this project any of these day. So yeah, looking at your ideas collection does help. I recommend everyone does that. 🙂
Hey Andressa! (By the way, cool name, I’m not sure I’ve seen that one before!)
First of all, you rock for overcoming the despair. Not everyone does that and it’s something worth recognizing as you’ve done here. 😉
Next, that’s really cool you’ve taken all of your ideas and connected them. It’s also a beautiful thing you’re having fun in the madness. This storytelling deal is a tough one but you’ve got the right mentality so I know you’ll get there!
Last, thanks so much for swinging by and dropping a line. I love connecting like this!
Peace my new writing friend…