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If you are not Jewish, not Israeli, not a parent, not a writer, or otherwise share none of the facets by which I name myself, then my folder topics will be of little interest to you. However, your own folder topics are keenly interesting to me. Please write in with a list of your email folders names. I'd love to get to know you better!

Recently, I noticed that a page I had printed out contained a copy of my peripheries, specifically, a list of the email folders I had created for my email box. Existing neither as my web page, nor as a promotional banner for one of my electronic blogs or columns, this bit of information has the ability to expose me.

I reexamined the page for clues to who I (currently) am. Over the years, my email folders, like their analogous physical kin (most of which remain stored in two massive, legal-sized cabinets in my physical office), have changed. Some of those electronic bins have been permanently emptied. Others have been renamed. Still others have been merged or expanded according to the span through which I am passing.

Although I never saw a reason to keep track of my folders' evolution, I find it instructive to periodically assess where I am holding. For the sake of example, I share with you my most recent findings.

Some of my electronic folders fit the category of "haven't gotten around to finishing it yet." There, I place the folders containing: a list of needed home repairs, my list of Jerusalem-area contractors, my notes and email on becoming a host family for a lone soldier, and my jottings on taking a trip abroad.

Others of my folders belong in the category of "if I don't record and store these data, I'll be in trouble." Including under this heading are: the folder entitled "access to websites," i.e. my lists of Internet passwords and user names; my folder on e-shopping locations; and my folder on Jerusalem gemachim [an acronym for 'Gemilut Hasidim' (trans. acts of kindness)], which accept the types of things my family ordinarily has available to share.

There exists, too, a class of folders indigenous to being "a nice Jewish girl." Included here are: my folder for "reasonable" places to which to send tzedukah [charity], my folder for Shabbot Hospitality, my folder for Perek Yomi [daily chapter]and for other daily inspirational emailings, and my folder for shidduchim [matchmaking].

Whereas my books, my research papers, and the like are filed as Word documents, I have folders, as well, that allude to my academic life. Included, therein are folders on rhetoric and communication theory and a folder on the last Israeli university where I taught.

There also exist folders just for my creative. Though my actual work lives in Word files, most of my references to it lives in my email account. I have separate folders, respectively, for: The Jerusalem Post, Binah, Mishpacha, Chabad.org, and Horizons. I have a folder stuffed full of correspondence with a local college where I was supposed to teach an autobiography writing course, and I have a folder full of notes concerning a certain slimy book agent. I have a folder for my niche blog and a folder for my flash fiction. My poetry submissions, my novels, much of my other creative writing and my correspondence with publishers are located here, too.

There are many other writing-related folders in my email box, such as the one full of reviewers' comments and the one holding a collection of essays, written, in two voices, with Missy Oldest. I even have a folder for Pay Pal to help me keep tabs on my foreign outlet accounts. There exists, also, my folder full of writing tips and my folder filled by correspondence with the head of research of a major New World institute.

In addition to the above, I have "unique" folders, such as the ones labeled "Aliyah," "Getaway Mommies," "House Exchange," and "War." I also made family-related folders for Computer Cowboy, Missy Oldest, and Boy-Getting-Taller.

My perennial Jerusalem job search has its own folder, as does a New World organization that specializes in teaching gifted and talented children. I have a folder for an organization that creates live, electronic, and print distributions of Zionistic information; a folder for a fledging organization that a friend and I started to help new olim donate their unwanted housewares to less financially endowed Israelis, and a folder simply called "Herbs."

In addition, I have a folder on notes for Bnai Mitzvot (Boy-Who-Needs-Books has yet to come of age) and a folder entitled "Art Work." Plus, I possess those ubiquitous folders labeled "miscellaneous" and "favorites."

"Miscellaneous" holds everything from the electronic address of a craniosacral practitioner, to the online site for the Orthodox Union's Torah Tidbits. It also contains: copies of camp registration forms for Missy Youngest and Boy-Who-Needs-Book, a membership list for our shul, tips on making challah, and photos, sent to me by a dear friend, of waterfalls.

"Favorites" houses emails which have provoked me. Beyond snippets of religious writings, already eighty per cent of that folder, the contents include: select love notes from Computer Cowboy, select greetings from my children, select electronic hugs from friends, and copies of letters I have volleyed back to employers and to other relations instead of backing down and instead of shouldering responsibility for someone else's slack. In other words, "Favorites" is full of "feel goods."

My electronic files will continue to morph. I've already separated my submissions for short stories from my submissions for lightening flash fiction. I've deleted a folder for a blog I no longer write. I've added a folder for shemittah halacha. My electronic storage chambers echo me.

Little Smile:

Electronic folders are not the only way in which I keep my life and the life of my family organized. Sometimes I use physical closets. Accordingly, my family has come to expect that I know the location of all of our possessions. Consider the following;

Missy Oldest: "Where's the vac?"

Me: "How should I know?"

Missy Oldest: "You should know."

Me: "Why?!"

Missy Oldest: "You're the Mom."