My son is generally a very tidy child. In fact, I’ve taken to calling him Felix Unger due to his propensity for keeping his hands clean, taking pleasure in straightening up his room and his daily inquiry regarding whether or not the cleaner is coming tomorrow.

Lately, though, it seems his grasp of a well-kept room is slipping. Along with the toys scattered everywhere he has gradually acquired the habit of collecting. Empty bags (paper, ziplock, gift bags, party bags, plastic shopping bags, you name it), junk mail, newspapers, rubberbands, scraps of paper, bits of string, used straws — no item is too mundane. This has me concerned. I’m flashing ahead 40 years and seeing him, single and lonely living in a dusty flat, room perimeters lined with piles of old newspapers, shopping bags stuffed with strings and paperclips and rubberbands, cats everywhere. It scares me.

Tonight as I was sifting through his “collection” to clear some floor space and lamenting this tendency of his, my mom, who’s in town for his birthday, reminded me that I was not so very different as a child. I was fastidious in spurts but in between my room would transform into something akin to a HazMat site complete with bits and scraps that I had discovered and rescued. And then I remembered another tendency of mine.

When I was given something really special, something I liked a whole lot I would cherish it but never use it. Countless candles have gone unburned. Beautifully packaged soaps and bath products unopened. Chocolate truffles have turned moldy because, well, they were too pretty and special to actually EAT. And then there was my Little Twin Stars tape. I think it was a Christmas present when I was 6 or 7. The date on the bottom says 1976. It’s mostly unused. I LOVED this tape. I cherished it. But use it? Why, no. Once used, it would be gone. So, the Little Twin Stars tape was kept lovingly in a treasure box and moved with me from Portland to Hawaii to California and on into college and now, into my life as an adult. And here it is now in all it’s unused glory.

I think I’ll go take a bath with that uncracked bottle of bubble bath I got for my birthday three years ago…