Introducing Ephemera

Because not everything can be about books. Really.

ephemera

things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time. 

items of collectible memorabilita, typically written or printed onces, that were originally expected to have only short term usefulness or popularity.  

According to the Oxford dictionary, these are the meanings of ephemera. Postcards and ticket stubs. A particular kind of spring flower that has a short lifespan, like trilliums. The northern lights. Sunsets.

Photo by Karl Damus on Unsplash

Locard’s principle says that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something to the scene of a crime and will take something of that scene with them. He said, “every contact leaves a trace” and that is generally true of human engagement. Every person we come into contact with leaves a trace of themselves with us, takes a trace of us with them. Even the most fleeting ephemeral moments, and I wanted a place where I could think about them. Where I could get my head out of books and think about those traces, those exchanges.

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I was on vacation last week, a cruise with my parents and please don’t judge me. I know they’re terrible for all kinds of reasons but even in the middle of all that I still found magic. I don’t know if you are familiar with Flow Rider, but it’s a kind of upside down waterfall that you surf on. One of the guys who actually does surf said it’s not really like surfing but you’re riding a board on water and he acknowledged it was pretty close. My guy was learning how to do it which meant he fell. A lot. But that didn’t matter with this one particular group of guys, no matter how poorly you did you got the same cheers, claps, and fist bumps that the guy who spent 5 minutes carving away and making it look effortless got.

It wasn’t like that all the time. The group changed as people went off to find a buffet or take a nap and others got in line. But there was a particular group of men that, whenever they wound up there together behaved the same way. Cheers, claps, and fist bumps all around.

I’m not going to get all one human race on you or how this is how life should be, because hierarchies still have consequences that exist outside of these brief moments. For all I know some of these guys were Republicans. I mean, what kind of person goes on a cruise anyway. Especially in the midst of a pandemic amirite?

And yet.

There was something so pure and beautiful about those fist bumps. About those cheers and the laughter. About that brief moment of community. I’m sure you’ve experienced that in other ways. The best friend you made one drunken night at karaoke. A game of pick up basketball in a city you’ll probably never go back to. I could think about the cost of that moment. About the workers and the environmental damage and those things are real which is why I’m not looking at this moment as an example of the world that could be. Because we’ve already got that world. A world of fiddling while Rome burns. We’ve got that world and I could look at it in that context. If you’ve been around for any length of time you know that’s my usual view.

And yet.

If we can look at these moments without being oblivious to everything else around us, we can see the persistence of life. It was fleeting to be sure. Over the course of an hour the group dynamic shifted and there weren’t fist bumps and cheers. And I’m certainly not advocating that we all take cruises to experience these moments what I am advocating for is that in the midst of whatever you are doing or experiencing I want you to look for them. I want you to appreciate the persistence of goodness or grace or beauty or whatever it is that makes life on this rock worth waking up for. Those fist bumps still make me smile.

Next week?

It’s a raccoon’s world and we just live in it.