Let it go

Writing often is a process of elimination. Putting all my precious thoughts on paper, I look at them again for few minutes, or hours, or days later and know that some of them have to go. It's painful, I like them all, they might even sound good. I marvel at the way they sound, the clever way I matched them all together but it is time to say good bye.

That's why it is good to wait a little before phooing them off. Wait a little till the emotional connection lessens and a  clearer perspective resumes. And yet often unable to perform the act I will choose the cowardly one of making many versions of the same piece. Some with, some without. This way it is never really final. I can always pull out some old versions of the same writing piece and savor my words again and again or maybe even use these discarded words in another new piece.
So just like the Passover Chametz, I nullify some words. I let them go while still holding on. Here they are buried deep in my computer files, never really lost, ready to be reused, ready to be read. Once Passover is over it is OK to pull them out again and use them for the rest of the year.

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• Chametz is a product that is both made from one of five types of grain, and has been combined with water and left to stand raw for longer than eighteen minutes. It is not allowed to be owned during Passover.