Lileks again

The latest Bleat by the ever-prolific James Lileks (who moonlights as an Energizer bunny, by the way) is well worth your time.

After rediscovering that his family had a live-in "hired man" when he was little, Lilkes deftly turns what would normally be a minor point of family trivia into a haunting revelation about the human condition. All in about a dozen paragraphs.

He didn’t have any possessions – not even the bed at the farm was his. All he left in the room was the cumulative effect of his weight on the springs. And isn't that a tidy lesson? The bed is a bachelor's wife; he sings to it when he snores, soaks it when he's sick, joins its each night with gratitude to lay his dreaming head upon it, and leaves it with regret to stand and stretch and start to toil. And in the end three kids bounce up and down squealing with glee, and they've just no idea. None.

That line blows me away: "All he left in the room was the cumulative effect of his weight on the springs."