Monday, April 28, 2008

Myyy Precioussss...!

..or, what are the most valuable things I own? This is apropos of a couple of minutes' thinking about what to write here, and waiting for my fingers to start doing the magical thing they do once they start their dance over the keyboard and I can feel my mind slipping into The Zone. What are the valued things? Here, I am not talking about people, or love, or gripes, things that are talked about as being possessed, but which is never true. I'm talking about things, pure and simple. Take my need for my family as a given; take my not very well paid job for what it is; understand that what I am considering of value here is not things that are, per se, valuable, except that they are of worth for me. Let's start.
1) right now, my hands. only after you've had a limb out of use for a while can you truly appreciate having full use of all of them. I suppose I should extend this to all my bits, but my hand will do for now. Hands in general fascinate me: I remember one time at university, when I was in my halls of residence, watching a Sudanese student washing up his plates in the sink, and seeing the gentle, clever grace of his hands as they caressed the plates into cleanliness. Whenever I accidentally catch sight of my own in a reflection, there is always something slightly shocking in the moment, simply because they look so delicate and poised, yet I know how much strength there is in them.
2) The table at which I'm sat, which is in fact a bureau. An old, cheap bureau, a hand-me-down, but one at which I feel at home, and which feels like a thing born to be written upon. It is warm to the touch, I feel stories woven into it, and I love its simplicity.
At this point, I feel I should mention that this is a random list.
3) My key ring. This is in fact liberated from a gym bag, coloured white and red with the slogan 'Play Football!' upon it, over thirty years ago. It is the oldest thing that I have continuously owned upon my person, and it still performs the function to which it has been adapted. Why change what works?
4) A Citizen Automatic, a gift from Nur several years ago, which is currently languishing in the bureau, its mechamism in need of some TLC. I didn't appreciate it at first, but it's a truly lovely bit of watchmaking.

No comments: