[Mamzelle]

Because it’s junk. We human beings are just not that important. The junk gives us a false sense of identity—we are not where we have been or what we own. And I have several antiques with provenance—family history—with no one who wants to continue it. It is kind of a personal set down and one that speaks directly to pridefulness. It’s just wood and clay. Call in the auction house and leave it all to the Salvation Army.

[MHT]

Yep--every "thing" is ultimately junk...ashes to ashes, dust to dust. However, some of these token remains of life share a story of a real person who faced challenges and those intergenerational stories have been lost. We don't talk to our elders. Kids would rather play a video game than hear about the sacrifices of those who went before them. In fact, I have learned much about my ancestors from finding this stuff. Sympathy cards for a lost child I didn't even know about. Postcards from Niagara Falls from 1911, and the same people never had enough money to leave town again.

Now, in facing my challenges, I often think of them and how they got through it all. I do not feel like my life has greater meaning through the material but I am just another link in a greater story.