What do you think is in my treasure box?

"Treasure your relationships, not your possessions." Anthony J. D'Angelo

Believe it or not, I have a treasure box. It actually belonged to my aunt, who passed it along to my oldest brother, who let me use it after he became "too old" for such things. After using it for a while I gradually began to think of it as my own, and then one day I decided it was mine. No one has disputed it since.

The treasure box is pretty full with all sorts of miscellaneous paraphenalia, and I became curious while we were studying folk objects in class about whether or not any of the items in my treasure box would qualify as a folk object. In evaluating my treasure box items, I tried to ask myself the following questions: 1) What is it? 2) Why did I put in the treasure box originally? and 3) Am I going to throw it out, and if not, why?

And now for the inventory - there were so many items that I decided to only pick 10:

1. A broken red ball. It belonged to Kim, our first cat in Georgia who was hit and killed by a motorist. I keep it to remember her.

2. A white ribbon. I got it from a grad school student who substituted as a teacher for one of my classes one time, and I thought he was kind of cute, so I held onto it because...wow, it seems really stupid now.

3. A home-made paper fan, so old it's practically falling part. It was one of the first Christmas crafts I ever made, and I thought it was absolutely beautiful, so I held onto it. I don't think it's so beautiful anymore, but I hang onto it because I always have. It's tradition, y'know?

4. Three green straws. I have no idea. I'll probably keep them just because I might someday remember why I put them there.

5. A bookmark of the Atlanta Georgia temple. It's one of my very favorite temples, more for sentimental reasons than for its actual beauty. It was the first temple I went to after turning 12, and of course, I associate it with the South and with Georgia, which I love. Oddly enough, I never use it as an actual bookmark. It just sits in my treasure box, gathering dust. Hmmm...

6. Two or three necklaces/bracelets I made at Girl's Camp. They still have dust and dried dirt on them, but I think they're pretty nifty. And I may want to wear some dirt, dusty looking jewelry someday.

7. A rock from our yard in Georgia. It's a pretty red rusty color, and reminds me of home. I also have rocks from other places, probably in Utah, but I can't remember where or why I collected them. They're gray; some are rough, some are smooth. None of them has any real significance to me.

8. A long, colorful string tied in a knot. I found it somewhere and decided to put it in a place where I could always find it quickly when I wanted to play string games; I really like string games - they're fun.

9. A picture I drew of a butterfly and the signature of my oldest brother on a piece of paper. These items are special because I made them/got them on the day that my brother left for the MTC. It was really hard for me when he left, and I cried a lot. It may seem weird, but having his signature and a picture made him feel closer to me at the time. Now I just keep them for the memory.

10. Two marbles - one is brown and one is white with confetti-like colored dots on it. My best friend in Georgia, Emily Niedfeldt, gave them to me on the last day that we saw each other before my family moved to Utah. I will always keep these in my treasure box in memory of our friendship and of that day. I can vividly remember the scene and the tears I shed afterwards, and even now, those marbles can make me choke up if I stare too long at them. Fortunately, Emily and I have remained good friends and she herself is now at BYU, so we correspond pretty regularly and keep in touch.