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Do Not Remove: Invitation to Write #2

For Writers:

We’ve all seen and joked about the tags on pillows that warn us not to remove them under penalty of federal law. When I was young and ornery, I would tear the tags off every pillow I would run across. Secretly, I thought about federal agents kicking down my door, catching me with tags in hand. These “pillow police” would throw me in a cell with only a pallet for a bed – and no pillow.

No one on pillow patrol ever came knocking on my door, but my mom was never happy when I would tear the tags off her favorite pillows. She knew the practical reason for leaving the tags alone: tear off the tag and risk tearing the lining of the pillow. It never stopped me, though, and soon enough I had graduated from pillow tags to tags on T-shirts. More than one shirt developed a peep-hole that allowed others to see the back of my neck.

Unlike pillow or shirt tags, other things cannot be so easily ripped off without serious consequences. These are the things that really need warning tags.

Think of a person, place, or thing of you choice. What would happen if it were removed from your life? Would you be able to continue, or would the hole it left be too big? Would your lining begin to fall out as a result? Today, explore the meaning of removal for 2 full pages without stopping.

“Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out candles and fans flames.”
Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

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