Can it be saved?

The other day I was hunting for something to tie up a set of headphones, to tidy it away so it wouldn't come out of my bag in a snarl that I would then have to untangle, cursing my clumsy fingers, impatient, on my way to do something else. Anything would do, an elastic band off a bunch of cheap grocery flowers, a twist tie, even a piece of string. Does anyone save string anymore?

I don't save string,but I save a lot of other things, against the day when I might need them. For a while I saved the original boxes and packaging for a whole host of things - a coffee maker, griddle, the iron, a telephone that I don't even use anymore. These boxes took up space in my closets, in the laundry room and out in the storage shed. When I moved, I didn't use most of them, so they went to the trash, four years late.

I saved gift bags and bits of ribbon and carefully smoothed out sheets of crinkled tissue paper. I couldn't throw out Christmas cards or birthday cards for a while. I saved leftovers, styrofoam clam shells and packages of crackers from restaurants, anything wrapped in plastic from airline food. Some things I fished out of my purse weeks later, crumpled and disintegrated or spilled everywhere.

I save the mail. The paper piles up, notices of plays I won't see, donations I won't make, hikes I won't take. Months later, all the dates have passed and I can recycle guilt-free.

I save change in the piggy bank. The last time I emptied it, I carefully separated the quarters for laundry and put all the pennies, nickels, and dimes back in the bank, for what exactly?

I save odd socks, skirts that are too big, jeans that are too small, and old bras that have lost their elasticity but not their comfort. I save a set of classical CDs because my father's hands touched them, a note from my sister with her new address, a heart-shaped rock from an enemy I respect, a talisman carved from antler from a student I disappointed, and a cotton string bracelet made by the chubby hands of a child I loved.

In the end I doubled and redoubled the headphone cord and tied it gingerly into a loose knot. No elastic band, twist tie or string. No need.