Too much furniture in one's living room
Too many pens in a stand
Too many children in a house
Too many words when men meet
Too many bookcases in a bookcase there can never be...
-Kenko (Fourteenth Century)
These words are from the first few pages of Objects of Our Affection by Lisa Tracy. My mother recently told me about this book during a conversation about the joys of stewarding family heirlooms and the interesting history they hold to one's past. I find solace in Kenko's words, as I have often wondered how a non-material person - who I hopefully consider myself to be - can have such a love of things. Not a passing fancy or flirtation, mind you...but a passionate desire and deep affection for certain objects that catch my eye. They exist on a grand sliding scale - things as precious as fine silver, china or crystal on one end and others as humble as a simple abandoned key or cabinet latch on the other. All the things, however, have one thing in common: they have an integrity about them that makes them absolutely irresistible. If there were a fire in my house, I'm really not certain what one thing I would grab.
In the end, I might take nothing, for fear that I would take so long to decide that I'd go right along with them.
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