Valuable things

The most blessed and useful word in the English language, I learned watching Antiques Roadshow, the tv program where people bring in worthless old stuff and have antique experts tell them that they have worthless old stuff.

That word is Patina.

I had never heard that word till I watched the Roadshow; now I use it all the time.

When Ginny wants me to dust my eleven bookcases, I can say, “But, Honey, that would destroy the patina”.

I love that word. “The refrigerator is developing a rich green patina” sounds so much nicer than saying, accumulated glop, grease, dirt and grime.

I spent much of the day putting away the WWI artillery shell, Civil War sword, the 1818 One-cent coin, and other debris left over from my history lecture at the library the other night. I’d just dumped this stuff in the corner of the living room anticipating needing them again this week. But today I’m on a clutter reduction kick so I packed it all away.

For a guy who is not a materialist, I accumulate so much STUFF!

Like a squirrel squirreling nuts away for the winter, I accumulate things I may need someday. I have bottled water for the next hurricane. I have parts for a clock I'll repair when I can get to it; books I eventually plan to read, clippings for an article I may someday write. I have a box of toys in case we ever have a grandchild. Until this morning, when I packed them up for the mission, I even had a dozen shirts to wear again in case I ever loose six inches around my waist!

Someone in our family fell into a spot of trouble recently and our kids gathered at our house tonight to talk things over and develop a plan for helping. The problem is too big for any one of us the handle alone, so they planned a group effort to get the stupid ox out of the ditch, to rescue the distressed, and to comfort the troubled one – while unmercifully teasing the hell out of her for getting into the situation in the first place.

The kids have tickets to Antiques Roadshow in Tampa next weekend; so after supper they looted our house looking for stuff to take to have evaluated:… this 1829 engraving of King Charles II, that old Hall’s bowl we use to feed the raccoons, Ginny’s grandmother’s teapot, 45 records, the 1920s statue of the dancing girl – old stuff.

Ginny & I watch amused as they plunder the house searching for treasures – they don’t realize that the most precious thing in this house is them.

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