Yay for sentimental blog posts!

It is that time of year again. Time for Becky's Semi-Annual Room Destruction/"Re-Organization" Fest! This basically consists of my taking everything from my room out of it's place, piling it on the floor, putting about half of back, and then becoming bored. It's usually about 6 months before I become motivated to once again tackle the task.

But with the upcoming family garage sale, I was given the opportunity to rid my many bookshelves of some of the old books that I have outgrown. This meant that my actual interesting, read titles were given a new home; a nice shelf which was a luxury condo compared to their usual home on the floor, buried under old concert posters and CDs.

And I found this all so exciting! Think of it: No more torn dustcovers, and I could actually arrange them by author, subject, etc! The geek inside of me (most of me, in fact) was proud of my work.
But it was more than just an exercise for my inner librarian. It seems to me that many, myself definitely included, look to label themselves; to find security in knowing we are either this or that. And when we find ourselves split between two things we lose ourselves, not knowing how they can meet within us. But what I learned from the simple task of gathering those books which matter to me, is that what we read is one of the truest reflections of who we are.

Because there, on one shelf, sat the poetry of Canadian giants Cohen and Atwood with Obama and Anderson Cooper; the works of Vonnegut and Richler with Hollywood screenplays. Feminism sits beside Monty Python; Post 9/11 security next to the Kennedys and Vietnam and the Beatles.
Some of these seem to go well together, others do not (who ever thought that Jessica Valenti and John Cleese would make such a great pair?); But all these books mean something important to me. It's comforting to be reminded that I'm more than what a single label can define me as. Rather, we're all a just a sum of many, many experiences, and unfortunately live in a world where oversimplification is far too easy.