It’s Complicated

redred piecesmini cooperhomage to minired dressred topred shoesred chanel bagred nail polishred bagred lipstickred sunglassesred cashmerered pulloverred scarfred golas

Apr 15

Written By Karen Solomon

My car went in for routine service and never came out, so now I am in a car that I am slightly afraid of with all of its fancy dials and voice commands and giant touch screen. It’s safer, yes. It drives better, yes. But somehow I had an attachment to that old school cherry red MINI convertible that went deeper than I realized. We got it in January 2020, just after my last cancer treatment, 2 months before COVID lockdown. It sat in the driveway for that first year, except for our big entertainment of cruising around LA’s empty streets with the top down and masks on. We named her Rosie. She was always a hit with my teen daughter’s friends. I got a lot of “ I love your car!” because it was cute. Fun. Made you smile. As humans we get attached to things. Your favorite lived-in jeans, a passed down ring, a dress you save for only special occasions, that worn band t-shirt you just can’t get rid of. After the horrendous fires in LA where many lost absolutely everything, being attached to any material thing seems gratuitous/ridiculous. But it’s the feeling of the memory attached, not necessarily the object, that tethers your heartstrings to something inanimate. I have things in my closet like that. The pink floral dress with attached crinoline I wear every Easter. The vintage cardigan I thrifted in Ojai for $20 that everyone thinks is Gucci. My grandmother’s cashmere cardigan with mink collar that had moth holes in the arm, so I had it made into a short sleeve. So when I purge my closet and make a pile for resale, those pieces always stay no matter how old they are and even if I haven’t worn them in over 2 years. (Was never a fan of that rule.) When I ultimately turned in the MINI for that last time, I actually asked what would happen to it. So here is my homage to that little red convertible MINI that made sitting in LA traffic a bit more tolerable and will always be associated with getting us through some crazy hills and valleys, both on the road and in life, smiling.