Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Worn...And Well Loved


 It seems you see fewer and fewer well-worn things, nowadays. We live in such a disposal world--it doesn't help things are no longer built to last anymore. Still, if you take care of things, they'll stick around (look at all the old VW beetles out there...). 

A few weeks ago I snapped a picture of two hymnals, one was ours (I call Old Orange...), and the other belong to the meetinghouse. Both books are spiral-bound, meaning they lay flat on a music stand, which is important if your calling is to lead music and you can't fiddle with a book that wants to close. I brought our almost worn out hymnal with the thought that if they had a better edition at the church, I'd use that one...

Turns out, mine was better.

Yes, both books had covers that were duct-taped together. The blue book actually had pages that had become separated from the binding and were just sitting inside. I ended up using Old Orange and things turned out fine.

I suppose we could order a new spiral-bound hymnal--it's what people seem to do these days. I'm sure we can justify the cost. But, there's a certain charm to keeping imperfect things, things that still offer value, that still work, that still do what they were designed to do. One day in the future we'll probably have to buy a new book and on that day, I'll be a little sad. Old Orange has been good to us...

And we'll try to be good back.

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