大象传媒

Once upon a time, I went to watch my son Silas play lacrosse.

Afterwards, as I stopped by the car to put on a jumper, I took off my glasses and put them on the roof.聽Now driving is pretty much the only thing I can do without glasses.聽So I drove.

I remembered, of course, just as I arrived home.聽In the ensuing panic (and panic did ensue), I drove back, cursing with all the rich force of my ancient forebears.聽聽But my specs were gone.聽Thing is, I need my glasses. But more to the point I liked those frames, and so when I lost them, I lost it.聽I was, to put it mildly, invested in the object.

Working in a museum, I am surrounded by objects in which there has been a weirdly huge investment, no matter whether they鈥檙e a broken pot or a huge gold cup.

Sometimes they鈥檙e important because of what they鈥檙e made of - the huge gold cup really is a lot of gold.聽聽But more often, they鈥檙e important because of the people they speak of, the humanity they embody.聽聽We cling to the precious belongings of forgotten families, the gifts of forgotten lovers, the pictures of forgotten friends.

One of the strange things about Jesus is that he left nothing behind.聽聽Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is just a tale.聽聽There is no Grail, no record of things Jesus owned, or even of him owning things at all.

Instead, the record of his life is entirely human.聽He loved, he wept, he got angry, he told stories.聽聽He gave time to his friends, he fed people he鈥檇 never met.聽聽He made them feel worthwhile.聽聽He made them feel more important than things.

This last year, we鈥檝e not been short of things. The worldwide cardboard shortage tells us how many things we鈥檝e been buying.

But somehow we all know that those things are less than what we鈥檝e been denied; the smiles, the clasped hands, the hugs, the kisses, the shared meals and cups of tea.

I reckon it鈥檚 good to have been reminded that these are the things we need, to remember that聽we聽are such stuff as dreams are made on: us, our lives and loves, our joys and sorrows.聽聽Everything else is just a Museum.聽And it鈥檚 not really glasses I need to see that that is really important.