Gandhi acknowledges the Power of Objects

Not THE Gandhi, who had a real thing against the material world (no sex! no food! no clothes!), but a subsequent generation. The few belongings left from the iconic Indian leader are up for auction, including his wire-rimmed glasses, pocket watch, and sandals.

"These objects are very close identities of someone we call the 'Father of the Nation'," said Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. "We have to bring them back."

When asked whether it was missing the whole Gandhi Point to worry over the disposition of mere objects, he replies:

"We as people, we love to identify with objects. We love to associate ourselves by looking at those objects with great detail."

I agree. Human beings are terrific magpies of symbology and superstition. We are wired to not only see, hear and pick up all kinds of stuff, but to then think hard about it and make connections (real or imagined). From saint's relics to vintage cars to kung-fu belts to baby teeth, we imbue objects with metaphysical properties that radiate and make us feel special for being around them. How else to explain that classic Antiques Roadshow moment when one learns that the family highboy would have been worth $100,000 more if it still had the original gunky oxidized lead paint on it? That paint has 200 years of freakin' MOJO!

Even the most mundane objects can attain this status. Children are universally mad for collecting rocks, which serve no practical function but can never be disposed of. The must-have holiday toy/clothes/notebook/gadget is another example of our strange propensity to project our own needs onto poor, unsuspecting, insentient matter. The fact that the magic dissipates so quickly in these cases doesn't diminish the importance, it just demonstrates an artifact of our current culture. At the moment, we humans have a crush on the ephemeral.

Anywho, the Indian government is now stepping in to attempt to halt the sale of Gandhi's possessions (although as of now the items are still listed at the March 4 & 5 auction). I am rooting for them. There are times when irony is not good, clever, or funny, and this would be one of them.

Let me explain...

I feel the need for before pictures because I often find myself so entrenched in the present moment that I feel as if it is the only state of being I've ever inhabited. I don't plan much or well for the future, and I resist sentimentality for the past. But I'm a sucker for imagery, icons, visual archetypes, so that really good photos (yes, even the too-dark cell phone pic of a dismembered kitchen sometimes qualifies) can serve to remind me that I was there before I became here, so it must be possible to get to somewhere else as well.

Starting a blog right now (a point wherein I possess a splendidly functional kitchen sink) would seem like starting in the middle of the story, and that would just be silly.

BEFORE

In the time honored tradition, a before picture.
It is all downhill from here.