Spend it all

 

The late humor columnist Erma Bombeck was once asked in a television talk show interview if she saved any ideas so that she would be assured of at least one strong column a week. Her vintage reply is instructive:"I don't save anything. My pockets are empty at the end of the week. So is my refrigerator. So is my gas tank. So is my file of 'ideas.' I trot out the best I've got, and come the next week, I bargain, whimper, make promises, cower, and throw myself on the mercy of the Almighty for just 'three more columns' in exchange for cleaning my oven."I didn't get to this point overnight. I came from a family of savers who were sired by poverty, raised in the Depression, and worshipped at the altar of self-denial."Throughout the years, I've seen a fair number of my family who have died leaving candles that have never been lit, appliances that never got out of the box, and new sofas shrouded in chenille bedspreads. "I always had a dream that when I am asked to give an accounting of my life to a higher court, it will go thusly: 'So,empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that went unfulfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born? Any unpaid compliments or bits of love that you haven't spread around?' And I will answer, 'I've nothing to return. I spent everything you gave me.'"