Tuesday, January 15, 2008

What's in Your Wallet?

Like most everyone the first thing that most would notice is the outside, the most obvious, and in my case the first thing they would notice about my wallet, is that it is a purse. If they allowed their eyes to linger just a few seconds longer they would notice that it is a fairly new, designer brand knock off. This could give the observer a few pertinent clues about me and lead them to make a couple of assumptions…both of which would probably be correct. They would likely assume the owner of this personal carrying case is a woman and that this woman would like to be thought of as not too far off the fashion path but, that she is also unwilling to throw a good deal of funds in that direction. The color of the case could well indicate to even a casual observer, that it is owned by someone who’s somewhat conservative, as the purse is basic black and sports no accent color or flash, to either draw attention to it or its owner. The purse does have a design inscribed within the weave of its black fabric and it is leather trimmed…so there is an attempt to stray from the totally bland.
If the person who came across this lost vestige of individuality bothered to look deeper and opened the lost purse they would find, as exists in all of us, the deeper revelations of who we are, what we care about, and what we value. It takes concern or at least curiosity to bother with exploration or recognition but, allot of times, it is simply a matter of a decision to do so. If they crossed that bridge, and opened the case they would find a mass of keys. Keys to a home, keys to a garage, keys to an SUV, and an older truck, keys to a storage shed, a postal mail box, a safe deposit box, and a locker at the gym…keys to a life. On those keys are a plethora of magnetically encoded tags claiming various memberships around a small town. There are tags for the library, a gym, auto insurance, a health food store, and a grocery. One could easily assume that this person is likely responsible for running a fair amount of errands.
Digging deep would reveal a closed inner leather case and within that case beats the heart of the purse. One casual flick of a finger and the secret inner workings of this person’s life are revealed. The first item to be seen is a lovely picture of a smiling group of five siblings, ranging from child to young adult. Behind that picture is a driver’s license revealing a face hauntingly similar to the picture of the siblings but, a fair amount older. Within the aged leather inner case are the financial workings of a busy family, a pack of checks, debit cards, one credit card, folded cash, and lots of change! In a neat and expanding pile are the punch cards to virtually every espresso stand within a 5 mile radius of that home address. On a laminated card are the address, home phone and cell phone numbers of two gals who used to share a maiden name with the purses owner. The card is creased with heavy use but, maintains it key placement along the slot next to the driver’s license.
Could someone be able to make some logical assumptions as to who I am by just going through my wallet? Yes and no…it depends how deeply they were willing to dig.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Day one and counting...

Well, it took an English Course requirement to get me to finally set up my blog...but, I've done it!