Disintegration

Seth at The Altered Page has set up an interesting project: Disintegration Collaboration. Not being much of a social person meant that I ignored his general invitation but made the mistake of mentioning it to Susan. She immediately remembered the certificate I had started to distress a few years ago with my daily used coffee filters. They did a good job of staining the certificate but then what was I going to do with it? It waited for me to decide while Susan stuffed it away in a pile of papers. Disintegration, Susan said, was now the solution.

The next question was where to put it. My back yard had the perfect answer: Inside this nameless welded sculpture. Nameless, like I was to the corporate headquarters who knew me only as a 6-digit employee number. Inside, where I held back the knowledge that I did have, that I had been tested on, that I knew backwards and forwards, but inside where I kept it because few people trusted that I really knew what I was talking about. Inside the gut of this sculpture because every day for 32 years I started out with a knot in my gut, hating what I did for a living.

The certificate was rolled up and pushed up the middle. Symbolic? When I let go, it was held in place by the tension of the paper unrolling. More symbolism? How long will it take before nature takes my piece of paper away from me? Seth set a general endpoint of May 1. We'll see.