An Abbreviated List of Ways to Make Things Important
(this served, at one point, as the endnotes for a longer essay on inheriting a cavernous apartment full of random stuff)
1. Use permanent marker or highlighter.
2. Refer to it by its full, proper name.
3. Give it more names, and refer to it by those instead.
4. Capitalize its first letter, even when you’re speaking.
5. Fit it into a pattern, probably one designed by the fates.
6. Make it the exception.
7. Indulge and/or scratch it.
8. Eat it with both hands.
9. Use it to forget about other important things.
10. Use it to remember about other important things.
11. Panic when you lose it.
12. Give it some space.
13. Give it some of your space.
14. Give it someplace to haunt.
15. Exorcise it.
16. Exercise it.
17. Let it rest in your bed, or on the inside of your eyelids.
18. Always keep it at eye level.
19. Collect it.
20. Try to put it off.
21. Stress it.
22. Let it stress you (out).
23. Hold its baggage, or let it hold yours.
24. Tell it your secrets.
25. Let it make you angry, and maybe forgiving.
26. Throw it out a closed window.
27. Expend a roll of tape on it.
28. Keep it in the pocket without the hole.
29. Sleep on it.
30. Place it near the beginning.
31. Place it just beyond your reach.
32. Place it anywhere unexpected.
33. Put it in code, or be unnecessarily cryptic when referring to it.
34. Bequeath it.
35. Inherit it.
36. Read too much into it.
37. Consume it last, and savor even the crumbs.
38. Fail to rip your mind from it (or, always leave it unfinished, but rarely leave it).
39. Extrapolate from it.
40. Brand it, or make it a brand.
41. Customize it.
42. Give it (a) definition.
43. Preserve its essence and/or flavor.
44. Imply it, or avoid referring to it.
45. Place it in the middle, disguised, on purpose.
46. Use it to measure time.
