Today’s Photo Friday theme, Found Objects, has my name written all over it. Not only have I previously blogged found objects like a child’s stuffed octopus, a rain-soaked pair of glasses, and a dirty pacifier, I have an entire blog category devoted to the subject. In a world where it’s so incredibly easy to get lost, it gives me a sense of hope to think that sometimes, precious things like stuffed toys, blankets, and binkies are found.
It seems similarly optimistic to think that someone stumbling upon a wallet in the woods would simply brace it on a branch, allowing its rightful owner to re-trace steps to re-claim it. Have I any way of knowing whether the various keys, watches, and cell phones (!!!) I’ve found in the woods over the years have ever found their way back to their rightful homes? No. But still, I hold out hope that somewhere and someday, possessors and possessions will be reunited, this wallet staying in precisely the same spot on a heavily traveled trail for several days before someone, rightful owner or otherwise, claimed it. Only a philosopher will dare ponder whether this wallet was finally found or merely lost again.
There’s something sad about a single lost glove bereft of both home and mate…but a matched but nevertheless lost pair is a real rarity. If you’re lost with a companion, are you truly lost? Or is a matched pair of gloves merely wandering, seeking adventure apart from any interfering appendage?
But if found objects like cast-off pacifiers give me hope, posters advertising the lost tug at my heart, pointing as they do to the way loved ones sometimes disappear and ultimately pass. It’s one thing to believe (on Good Friday of all days) in the God of Lost Things…but who but the most optimistic holds out hope for a kitten lost right before a massive snowfall? Whether one lost kitten makes it through another storm, shouldn’t we all find comfort knowing that someone, somewhere, believes, hopes, and prays she can?
Love is akin to hope, so those who love truly hope deeply as well. The posters J and I spotted earlier this month for “missing Max” looked brand new, but Max hasn’t been seen since August. Is an entire season or more too long to hold out hope for a returned friend? At what point do you stop putting up posters or take down the weathered ones that remain, reminders that the lost aren’t always found? Or does a faithful friend ever stop looking, wondering, and hoping, believing in his heart of hearts that Max is out there somewhere, and okay?
If faith were enough to bring lost cats and kittens home, return wallets to their rightful owners, reconcile mis-matched mittens, and return toys, blankets, and binkies to the little ones who love them, we’d have nothing in the way of Lost and Found in this world. Instead, we live in a messy and dangerous place where we sometimes lose, forget, or misplace the things we value the most, and people who don’t know or care about the true value of our sentimental things find them as if by mistake, not knowing the love, hope, and disappointment they hold. These aren’t just lost animals and objects, you see: they’re forlorn wanderers looking for home.
Mar 21, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Love that…um, stuffed critter in the top photo. Sweet, and kinda sad. Hopefully he’ll find a good home. A home where… the dog will chew him to pieces. Well, no, hopefully a better home than that. I found lost (solo) gloves everywhere, and always think of you when I see them. Queen of lost and found.
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Mar 21, 2008 at 7:07 pm
“I’ve found.” Typo.
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Mar 22, 2008 at 9:01 am
When I see lost kitty and doggie posters it always makes me a little sad. I’m not a pet keeper, but I know people get very attached. I always think of some child missing their beloved animal.
I haven’t been to Photo Friday in a long time, something about their software made it a chore for me. Maybe I’ll revisit.
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Mar 22, 2008 at 11:00 am
The stuffed critter was actually some sort of blanket that was attached to a stuffed frog. I think (?) the idea was to have Baby hug the toy part, then use the rest for bundling. Or maybe it was one of those baby bath towels where there’s a hood in one corner to dry Baby’s head, then a towel for wrapping the rest.
Since neither J nor I have kids, we weren’t sure what it was or how it worked, but it made a good picture…and by the next day (we spotted it on Christmas) it was gone.
twoblueday, the lost pet posters that get me are the ones that have been up forever…or the ones that specifically say “Please return, our five-year-old misses him” or something like that. And in the weeks after 9/11, I’d always get teary-eyed when news footage showed all the posters for lost people that families put up. There’s something about the hopefulness of thinking a poster will bring your loved one back that gets me every time.
What I like best about Photo Friday is the once-a-week “prompt” to dig through my archives to find something worth sharing. I don’t always have something on the topic, but in this case, these were pictures that I shot but had never used, so all I needed was an excuse.
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Mar 22, 2008 at 11:26 am
When I saw the Photo Friday theme, I immediately thought of you and all the stuff you find while hiking! I knew you’d have plenty of neat stuff for this topic!
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Mar 28, 2008 at 6:52 am
When our daughter was a baby, we bought her not one, not two, but THREE yellow stuffed “baby bunny” toys, thinking we were prepared for the inevitable “lost lovey” scenario in the years ahead. We swapped them out so they would wear evenly.
Instead, she soon determined the minute differences between them, and named EACH of them: Baby Bunny, Mama Bunny and Mudder (no, I have no idea what “mudder” means) Bunny.
And for all our pains to save her from the anguish of (losing her beloved bunny, we had to go through the experience THREE TIMES.
Thank you for a beautiful and poignant post, and the lovely photos that serve so well to bring your point home.
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