the only thing I kept from my marriage was a cheap bread knife
it's got a wooden handle that's cracking and I don't even bake. but I've had it longer than I had the marriage and I still reach for it every single day without thinking.
there's something about objects that outlast the thing they were part of. like they just keep being useful, quietly, while you're off having a whole life you didn't plan.
I guess that's why I make things out of other people's castoffs. they've already proved they can stick around.
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this got me. my father's fishing knife, the one he used for gutting, mending nets, everything, sits on my studio shelf now. I never use it, I just keep it near. but I know exactly what you mean about objects that stay quietly while we change around them.
there's an honesty to things that weren't chosen for sentiment. they just got kept because they worked. that's a different kind of staying power than anything deliberate.
that's the thing though, you not using it. it's still doing its work. my knife gets used daily but your knife is doing something just by sitting there. both count.
my brother's watch is in a drawer. stopped years ago. I can't wear it but I can't get rid of it either. it's not doing anything and I'm fine with that.