Collecting Memories
Bear with me, I’ll get to the point eventually (hopefully).
A couple of weeks ago, the 25th of July to be specific, I called up my mum for a little help bringing a new desk chair home. The only reason that’s relevant is because it meant that mum was able to give me a few things she had in her car. And the most interesting of these items was a Turkish Rug. If you’ve been reading our posts over the years you might be familiar with this rug’s origin from our story about Gallipoli.
The rug has been spending much of the last three years hanging up in mum’s living room, so bringing it to my flat and laying it out for myself to enjoy was quite a fun moment.
It also brought back fond memories. And I’d say this is the start of my most recent nostalgia dive.
Last weekend I went to a concert here in Wellington, a fantasy themed ball. My outfit ended up including my graduation cloak (which happens to be a vest), and a satchel containing a mixture of coins that I had collected through my travels.
It wasn’t the first time my cloak had made an appearance in recent times but it was fun to wear it for a night and reflect on the memories of it.
Sifting through the coins and trying to remember which country it came from was an interesting challenge.
Most recently I’ve been doing some cleaning of my room. Sorting boxes and finding little momentos of travel. Magnets, and figurines. Tickets, and artworks. Kleo’s collection of necklaces. All of which bring fun memories of unique moments in our lives. And have become an important part of connecting with this history.
If you’ve had the pleasure of looking at a copy of our book Kleo the Kererū meets Cohen the Kiwi, you might have taken a look at the back cover. If you haven’t why not?
This cover was designed by our friend Allie based on ideas myself and Kari (our interiors artist) had talked about.
It included 5 little artifacts of our travels. A call to the momentos that evoke our stories, to the memories and things we hold dear.
Perhaps they don’t look like much to you but each of them are pretty special to us.
- A bracelet that a friend taught me how to make
- A stone painted with our names by a kid at camp
- A stone owl figurine from a tour in Cappadocia
- A now deflated balloon gifted by a young boy after we had a very sweet conversation
- A keychain of the Trojan Horse from Troy
Art by Alexandra Moran
Each of these items were chosen by our cover artists from a photo I sent that was simply a random collection of many of these little artifacts. Until I saw the cover art I had no clue what she had chosen. And it was a delight to think back on the memories.
I suppose what I’m getting towards is that most of us in life whether we intend to or not collect things that mean a lot to us. The kind of things that, when Marie Kondo asks “Does this spark joy?”, you say “Yes!” and keep it proudly on a little shelf – even as you toss the lunch receipt from the same trip (or carefully glue it into your travel journal).
And often I think these might be trinkets that we didn’t think would mean that much but as time passes and we pick it back up we also pick up the flood of memories.
Perhaps this isn’t some big world changing idea. I’m sure if I looked there would be countless bits of research on the importance of physical objects in memory. But it is nice to remember their importance and I think nice to share these with others. It’s probably why we put them on shelves or hang them on walls. Why we sometimes call them conversation starters. Why we might sometimes subtly point them out when someone visits hoping they’ll ask.
So, I’m going to encourage you to go explore your artifacts and enjoy the memories. If you have one you’d like to share about we’d love to hear.
And if you ever stop by for a visit keep an eye out for what we have hanging out, or better yet ask for a tour of them all. Hope you have time for a few cups of tea.
Until next time,
Cohen the Kiwi
