Pieces

I heard tell of a man, a used bookseller, who collected items used as bookmarks that he found in used books.  He found concert ticket stubs, love letters, receipts, postcards, letters from a daughter to her dying father in a nursing home.  The thought of collecting these items fascinates me and tugs at my heart.  Think of the lives these items represent, the hands who so often touched these items.  So often, I mindlessly grab things to stick into a book, but often the items are significant in some way and represent some memory that I want to hold on to or revisit often.  Bookmarks are only glanced at, but for a moment they recreate that special memory every time you open the pages of a book.  To other people, the items stuck in a book look like random worthless items, but to the keeper the item is a link to pieces of their life.

Imagine that you hear a knock on your door.  A person of authority enters your home and explains that she is taking you to a new home to live with new people.  If you say you won't go, the person explains very calmly and firmly that you have to and you will.  If you say you will run away, the person explains that you will be found and brought back.  If you ask why, the person explains that there is no other choice.  You are told to pack your things, but there is not room for any living things.

You are then taken from your home, your family, and brought to a new home, with new people you have never met.  This new family has been told all about you and they are very excited to have you come live with them.  You are shown to a room and told to make yourself comfortable.  You do not know when you will see your family again.  All that you have of your family, of where you come from, are those few things you packed in the 30 minutes before you were taken from your home.

What did you pack?  Some clothing essentials, a toothbrush, a favorite t-shirt, a book or some pictures.  Did you pack a blanket or a pillow?  An item belonging to someone you love?  How would you feel if your new family tried to replace those items, buy you "nicer" clothes and give away the clothes that you came with?  What if they washed that blanket or pillow and that familiar smell of home disappeared?  What if, as you sat on your new bed in your new home, your new family tried to "help" you and unpack all of your belongings, touch everything that you brought of your old life?

Children removed from their families and placed in foster care often show up on doorsteps with a garbage bag of belongings.  Often the children have little time to prepare for a move, little time to pack, little control over what happens in his life.  He has no control over the home he is placed in or when he can talk to or see his family.  Everything is new, the people he is living with, the school and church he attends.  Be careful how you treat a lice infested stuffed animal or a crumpled carton of cigarettes or a holey t-shirt. What a child brings may look like random worthless items, but for the child the item is a link to pieces of their life.