Past Lives

I joined the Boys' Brigade in 1982 at the age of six. I then spent several years with the company, first as an Anchor Boy, then the Junior Section, the Company Section, and as a Senior. Finally, I took the KGVI training course and became an officer in the company. I served for a total of 23 years, leaving in 2005 due to my move to Yeovil.

(I briefly made contact with a company down in Yeovil, but in the end decided not to get involved - they were looking for Junior Section officers while I preferred working with the Company Section or Seniors. I also briefly considered resuming my service after my return from Yeovil, but again decided against due to the travel that would have been involved.)

I enjoyed my time in the BB, but the fact is that I haven't been back in thirteen years now, and indeed I won't ever be going back - that chapter is done.

However, over the course of five house moves between 2005 and 2017, I carted a box of BB training materials with me, ignored and indeed unknown. It was only fairly recently that I even discovered I had these books, while clearing out some other boxes. And these are materials that were old even when I got them; they must surely be completely obsolete by now (though, knowing the BB, maybe not...).

The upshot of that is fairly simple: it's time to let go of that past life. The materials that I have are of no value, to me or to anyone else; I can't claim to have any sentimental attachment to them, as I didn't even know I had them; and they will never see use again. Getting rid is really a no-brainer. (The only thing stopping me is time - it's one thing to identify these for disposal; it's another to actually clear them out...)

But that's an easy "past life" to get rid of. Doing the same for pipe band materials dating back a similarly long time (and with a similar usefulness or value) will be rather more harrowing. And clearing out RPG ephemera from my school and university days will be a whole new level of difficulty. But we're getting to the point where it needs to be done - all this clutter from past lives is starting to impact on the quality of the life we're living now.