Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is a neat little book that taught me a neat little lesson.
A New Way to Find Books
One of my more pleasant surprises after college has been the University of Michigan’s alumni magazine.
This quarterly publication is a pretty good read. It features many well-crafted articles on both the university and the culture at large.
My favorite section has been the book recommendations. It lists all kinds of new books from Michigan graduates. Novels, memoirs, essay collections, anything.
Many of these books have made it to my reading list. Though I would like to focus on one unique book today. This book is author duo Bill Shapiro and Naomi Wax’s testament to the power of personal belongings, What We Keep.
Everyone Has Something
Shapiro and Wax explain their book’s idea came from a yard sale. They found a locket no one even realized existed. A locket sitting in a box of random junk and treasure.
This locket got Shapiro and Wax thinking.
Who first had the locket? It seemed to be important to them. How did the locket wind up in a box? It must have been lent through generations until it was forgotten.
Shapiro and Wax kept thinking.
In their words, people are starting to distance themselves from physical objects. We are switching everything possible to digital goods. Whether it be movies, music, or games. We are even doing our best to digitize things like grocery shopping and transportation as much as possible.
At the same time, memories can be attached to our physical goods. They can become links to our pasts. Links to who we were. Reminders of why we remain who we are or who we want to be again. Everyone has that thing they want to save in a fire.
What We Keep shares these items for 150 people across the United States. More than just showing off cool stuff, this books shows just how human people can be. Everyone has a past. Everyone has something they want to keep.
I want people to know the power of What We Keep. So, I will be discussing three of the items which particularly resonated with me. I will save discussing this resonance until the end. For now, I want you to get sucked into the worlds of these other people.
The Straw Hat
What item would Joss Whedon honor most? Props from movie sets? The script for a major production?
No, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and director of the first Avengers movie keeps a straw hat. Or, as he called it back in the day, his “strat.”
This was something from his school uniform in Winchester. According to Whedon, the hat speaks to a delightful experience “having been part of something that shouldn’t have existed in the modern era.”
He had gone to an all-male English boarding school. Classrooms were made of stone, and students wore “shabby” suits with fingerless gloves.
Whedon was only meant to attend the school for a year but chose to stay. Unfortunately, he squandered his second year. In his own words, he chose to major “in dropping acid.”
Now the straw hat hangs on Whedon’s wall. A memory of that time and place so radically different from the rest of his life and his world.
The Relic
This next item is a bit more obvious but meaningful all the same.
In Cleveland, Ohio, Shapiro and Wax spoke with Sister Mary Thomas Schiefen. Catholic nun belonging to the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration.
The Poor Clares’ vow of poverty means that Mary Thomas is not meant to own anything in this world. She only desires to keep a rosary and a few saintly relics.
The item she feels most fortunate to have? A relic of St. Thomas the Apostle. One of the saints she is named after, and one of Jesus Christ’s twelve closest followers.
This relic inspires Mary Thomas to “ask for special grace for everyone.” It connects her to God and to a great figure from the beginning of her faith.
The Steel and the Ring
The final item featured today belongs to Larry Thompkins. Retired captain from the New York City Fire Department.
Thompkins was a firefighter during the tragic events of 9/11. He says about the event, “The whole thing had such a huge effect on me and my life. I lost a ton of friends, and my whole world changed.”
To honor those who gave their lives, Thompkins grabbed some steel from Ground Zero and combined it with gold from his father’s wedding ring.
He made a memento to always hang around his neck. On the item sits the image of a firefighter helmet and the number 343. “That’s the number of firefighters who died that day.”
Thompkins made something to honor his father’s character and his department’s sacrifice. He took what remained and made something to connect him to his fellow heroes.
Common Humanity
I went to an all-boy high school in Michigan. While I found success there, I did know people who wasted their opportunities.
I am a Catholic always interested in hearing about personal devotion methods. Plus, one of my favorite fantasy books, Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, centers around a relic of St. Thomas the Apostle.
One of the first historical events I remember is 9/11. It happened when I was in first grade.
These are the reasons why Joss Whedon’s “strat,” Sister Mary Thomas Schiefen’s relic, and Larry Thompkins’ memento especially resonated with me.
In some way, every item in What We Keep resonated with me. I thank Shapiro and Wax beyond measure for this book.
There is something enlightening in hearing what other people find important. Even items I did not personally admire showed me the real experience of my fellow human beings. Helped me better see their humanity.
People are people.
It is a lesson which seems obvious. But history and modern day alike prove the idea not that easily grasped. Thankfully, we have works like What We Keep to help us out.
Kotcher’s Call to Action
If you like my content and wish to see more, then you have a few options.
You could check out my book Five Strange Stories on Amazon. Five Strange Stories is enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, so anyone who buys the paperback can also get the eBook for free.
You can also check my Essential Posts page for links to some of my greatest posts to the cKotch.Com blog.
Finally, be sure to like my Facebook page and share it with your friends. I post a link there whenever a new blog post goes live each Friday at 5:00 PM EST.