My husband decided that he, too, wanted to clean out his clothes as I have been doing and was going through his neckties. As he made a pile of those he was ready to part with, I rolled and packed them for donation.
I recognized a paisley print and remembered that Mickey Mouse was camouflaged within the pattern of the tie. We had gone to Disney World on our honeymoon twenty-five years ago this year and returned again for our ten-year anniversary in 2002. That is when he purchased this particular tie. Holding it and running my thumb across it, I couldn’t see Mickey’s face but I was transported back to those trips and in one lump sum in my head, all the other traveling we have done. In a rare moment of profound doom and gloom, I said:
“We’re going to die soon. All our best days are behind us.”
To which, the Mickey to my Minnie, the Prince Charming to my Cinderella, the Aladdin to my Jasmine, the Simba to my Nala, the Beauty to my Beast, because, after all, only a Beast would have this morose thought during spring cleaning, replied:
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
Who needs a spoonful of sugar when the medicine to your crazy is served up in this most delightful way?
