Empire of Dirt

I felt the earth move the other day. Actually, no. There was an earthquake in Utah the other day and everything in my home was devastated. Actually, no. Yet I walked through my house and felt those truths. Imagined the shaking and quaking. Saw the stuff in a pile of rubble. Was sad for a few moments. Only a few though. Was sad. Cause I like my stuff.

My Elvis stuff. Books. Pictures. Records. Trinkets and mementos. Gifts over the years. People know I love Elvis. His music comforts me. There is something about him that gets me at my core. He is as much as part of my life today as he was when I first heard him on “50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong”. Sure I was just a kid when my parents gave me that first record player and that album along with Elvis’ Christmas Album. (Still have both of those records….part of my stuff.) Yes, initially I liked Elvis because of my hero worship for my big brother. Same reason I liked the Yankees and joined the Air Force. Yes, it is true my Masters and Doctoral work was on topics related to the King of Rock N Roll. Along the way, Elvis became mine and Elvis stuff makes me feel good.

Other stuff too. Life stuff. Furniture. Pictures. Dishes. A clock that was my Father’s for twenty five years of blue collar hell. Hats. A lamp like the one from “A Christmas Story”. Yankee stuff. A monkey like the one that I had back before my first Elvis album. DVDs. CDs. Records. Vinyl ones and a stereo system with a turntable and everything. An autographed picture of Beaver. Another one of Roy Rogers. Even one of Vanna White cause I shot craps with her….twice. She is nice. Clothes. Lots of clothes. Not the Air Force Uniform. That was buried on another guy for another reason. Suits though. From another lifetime and occasional times now. Shoes. One pair just slightly younger than that first Elvis album that still fit. Was married in those. Kinda like Beatle boots. More books. Televisions. All those wires and boxes and remotes so that I can watch stuff new and old and all points in between should I wish, when I wish, and all that stuff. Pots and pans and dishes. My favorite room in the whole world. Not the one with the pots and pans and stuff. Another room. Called a porch, kinda like a sun room, but more heaven on earth for me. That room and its table where I have coffee and the chair so good for naps and the windows that are like Wendy’s windows and are the best thing about the house and the house was cool even before that room and those windows brought a piece of outside inside. Even outside stuff. The Sanctuary and garden and shed with all those smells of garages and sheds.

I walked though and pictured it all gone. Rubble because of the earthquake. I was sad. For a few moments. Then life cheered me up. My own. That is the one I know best everyday. Other lives too. Family. Of course. Friends. Strangers. Animals. Trees. Life. The stuff was rubble. Pangs came. Went too. Life matters. Stuff doesn’t. Didn’t think about insurance. Thought about less. Felt the power of that one line from the one song written by one guy and sang by lots of others but sang best by Johnny Cash if you ask me. “You can have it all…..my Empire of dirt.” I like my stuff. Bottom line though…..it is an Empire of dirt. Not too big as empires go. Bigger than some, smaller than others. Valued by me……lots. Lots less lately. I like stuff. Just understand more and more that it doesn’t matter. Could be gone in a second, will be gone in a second even if it outlasts me since I will be gone in a second before it, after it, with it, or without it. So I like it. Enjoy it. Just don’t need it and will get a lot less of it as time goes on. Life is good. Life matters. Life is the true value of what we have right now and what matters. Life.

Didn’t really have an earthquake but sure was “All Shook Up”. I have life all around me. My stuff is cool stuff. I can just feel and see beyond it….way beyond it…..a bit more everyday. You can have it all……my Empire of dirt. Will sell some of it since the IRS wants a bunch more cash than I have and plan to get. They are the Kings of the Hill when it comes to Empires of dirt. Me? I will listen to the King of Rock N Roll, piss on the Kings of the Hill, be the King of my own world, and have tons more cause I care about stuff tons less.