Everything But The Shrimp Forks

Sometimes there is one moment in a relationship that is frozen in your memory. It is a small, seemingly insignificant second but somehow it summarizes your life. We were together for three years. We were even married. Somehow I don't remember the first time we met, kissed, had sex, fought or did anything else. I just remember the day he told me about the shrimp forks. At the time, I thought it was a story that I would love forever because it made him vulnerable to me. It's amazing how things can change. Now the shrimp fork story just makes him pathetic.

My ex travelled. The story goes that he came home early from the road and his live-in girlfriend had moved out. She had divided the CD's alphabetically. How do you choose? If you take Jimmy Buffett (which is essential), you can't have The Ramones or Sade or Pink Floyd. How you decide something like that? Apparently, it was an an easy task for her. The stranger, more important decision was made in the kitchen. She took half the dishes, the glasses, the cooking utensils. Then she got to the silverware drawer and she took everything except the shrimp forks. It devastated him. It wasn't that she left. It wasn't that she took her daughter (not his) with her. It wasn't the loss of the Scorpions or The Clash (I can't remember what end of the alphabet he got). It was that she only left the shrimp forks.

I don't own any shrimp forks; but if I did, I am sure I would look at them every day and never think of their importance. I think that's how he looked at me. He looked at all of the other things in the drawer and passed over me because I was small and could only be used for one purpose. What happens when everything else is gone and all you have is that one thing that you once thought so insignificant? That's a hypothetical question. I'm not really looking for an answer.

I think that the point of this whole story is that I don't want to be the shrimp fork ever again. I don't want to be the tiny little thing that someone looks at and makes a conscious decision to leave behind for someone less fortunate to find and use (or even worse, to find and throw away because it has no purpose). The question is "how do I avoid it"? That's a real question. I am looking for an answer.