August 12: I Need a Rubber

You never realize what you have until it's gone. This statement could apply to so many different scenarios. Very few people keep cardboard boxes lying around their homes, but when it's time to pack your belongings and move, boxes become more valuable than gold. Jerry Seinfeld has a funny bit where he describes people in this situation. Everywhere they go, they have boxes on their minds. They walk in and out of stores just looking for boxes. He explains how there could be a funeral and everyone's crying, but because you're moving next week, you look at the casket and think, "That's a nice box."

I'm the same way with rubber bands. When I was a kid, I collected every rubber band that came with the morning paper. I remember keeping them in one of those really thin plastic bags that you get in the produce section of the grocery store. As my collection grew and grew, I bundled about ten together and tied them into a thick rubber knot. Thus began the start of my rubber band ball.

When just starting, I had to wrap a band around five or six times in order to get it to hold. By the time the ball reached four inches in diameter, I could simply wrap a rubber band around it once and it would be tight enough. I never actually did anything exciting with the ball. You would think someone as obsessed with baseball and miming the swing of a bat would find a use for it like, oh I don't know, hitting the ball a mile with a bat? No, I just kept it in my closet and when I got bored, I would sit and add more rubber bands.

My supply of rubber bands was endless. I had more rubber bands than GI Joes, X-Men, Legos, and K'Nex combined. My toy of choice? The rubber band. I'm kidding of course, but the point I'm trying to make is that if I needed a rubber band, I could simply go to the left-side of my closet and grab the Vons Produce bag from my blue laundry basket. If only I had known.

I'm still just as easily amused now as I was then, but with far few rubber bands. I never realize how few I have until I need one. A new bag of chips? Bags of frozen strawberries and vegetables? I've resorted to a Ziploc bag for my flax seed! My chips are getting stale, the frozen food is growing frost and the flax doesn't possess near as much nutty flavor as it did when I cut it open.

Why don't I go to Office Depot and buy a box? Why don't you go to U-Haul and get some moving boxes? Why pay money for something that if I work hard enough to find, I can get for free? I knew my mom had a bunch lying around because she still gets the morning paper so I had her mail me a few with her last letter, but a rubber band can only maintain its elasticity so long after living in the freezer. It's hopeless. I'll be on a rubber band hunt for the rest of my life.

Some people worry about not being able to find moving boxes. Others don't realize how much a boyfriend or girlfriend meant to them until he/she is gone. I had a lifetime supply of rubber bands and now I don't have any. I had it all. And now nothing. If you're reading this, be thankful for what you have been blessed with. One day it will be gone and you'll realize how important it truly was.