OLD

My first inclination when I saw that the theme for today's wide angle challenge was 'old' was to point the camera at myself! But everything is relative and I decided to look through the other offerings for today. I was interested to see Heanku's entry of a a wooden folding rule, which is a Swedish invention. We have one which is identical, right down to the red lettering that says 'Sweden'. I never would have noticed it if I hadn't seen one here along with the fact that it was invented it in 1883 .The most important thing I am constantly learning in this community is that although we live all over the world our connections are so much more important than our differences. I photographed ours folding ruler on my cutting mat with a more modern straight edge ruler and put in extras.

The main shot is of our bookshelves. There are lots of things on them, some much older than others, and many which have been shown here before. It really needs to be dusted, and the baskets on the top shelf are acquiring a patina of dust and cobwebs, but it is a job, requiring a folding stepstool which I don't fancy right now with my knee in a precarious state. Probably the oldest thing on the shelves is my grandmother's clock, but a couple of the Pomo Indian baskets and the little orange car handmade by John's grandfather are pretty old too.

I have been extra aware of how much these bits and pieces mean when I see the rebuilt homes of friends who lost everything to fire. We stick these things on bookshelves or in drawers and forget about them, or take them for granted because they are always there. Sometimes we struggle to eliminate 'clutter', yet homes that don't have these things feel a bit sterile, like hotel rooms. I will say, that in the 12 years we have lived here, while many of these old things came with us, we are still  acquiring more....

All these musings make me acutely aware of people who have lost everything to rockets, bombs and human inflicted violence. Not only have they lost their books and their tchotchkes, they have lost everything that anchors them to home, humanity and even survival. It breaks my heart because what is happening there is perpetuating violence, not ending it. What kind of life will those children who do manage to survive have as they grow up?