Useless Things
That make me feel great
We all have them, those useless things. We see them and we cannot help ourselves. So we buy the thing or we pick the thing up and we love it and it becomes part of the detritus of our lives. Rocks, toys, junk, cars, you name it… we all find things that are irresistible.
A few years ago I found myself in an antique shop in North Carolina. Not one of those hoity-toity places with crystal and display cases with internal lighting, it was one of those two story jobs with wood floors that dated back past two turns-of-the-century with dust older than my great grandmother. And it was glorious. Chock-full of old farming implements, defunct radios, piles of photos from families that just didn’t love them anymore. So much human ingenuity and energy collected into one space and everything was for sale.
Some things are easy to pass by: the 14’ long hutch full of china, where would it go? or the slate-top pool table for $1,971 that squeaked a little if you leaned on it, a handmade wood kayak too brittle for water. But most of those treasures just cry out ‘take me with you’ like puppies at the pound. But what would we do if we indulged every whim? A lot of these treasures came into their original owners lives just because of that. And so reason overcomes emotion and a discriminating shopper takes note, or a photo, or maybe a drawing, and just walks on by.
But some items you know the instant you see them that they will be coming home with you. Like the plastic toy robot from 1981, the Life magazine from 1956 with Julie Andrews immortalized on the cover, or the pile of nautical maps.
I have LONG been a sucker for maps of all kinds. But nautical maps in particular are like a bright bulb and I, a moth. Never a sailing man, nor even very aquatic, you would think those huge broadsheets with lines and depth notations in fathoms and contours showing the slope and falloff underneath that briny surface would go unnoticed. But those very mysterious nautical scratchings are like catnip. Like Sanskrit carved into a cave wall, they hold untold mysteries if only I could decipher them. Then too, there is the siren’s call of the sea that these paper masterpieces so tangibly represent.
What man doesn’t dream of mastering the sea at the helm of his 40’ yacht with nothing but the power of the wind and God pushing him forward via mainsail while his keel keeps the vessel stable and upright? Jibe to tack and back with his face to the wind!
My God, what a beautiful sight it would be.
So, home they came. The maps did inspire a few art projects, but mostly they just lie fallow in the flat files, serving their REAL purpose:
To put a smile on my face every time I see them.
So it was today when I slid that file drawer open and saw this beautiful sight.
So let’s hear it for useless things. Some, it’s true, have no actual use… but others have a utility that may not at first be apparent. Treasure is in the eye of the beholder after all.
Discuss...
nature at her worst, made by man
#story #travel
