might as well try hibernating for the winter

The Ancient Roman House of the Birds, named for its mosaic with 33 different bird species.

Italica, Spain

I am the wrong person to talk to when it comes to erasure and replacements and how shiny new unblemished things are a clean slate and therefore better. My apartment is filled to the brim with old things. I am helplessly attached to that which is broken and battered and resistant in spite of the trials they’ve been put through. I treasure every chip and crack that marks the antique porcelain and vintage ceramic I rescue from flea markets and I adore the crumbling gilt gesso frames I pluck from the trash. I am not put off by mirrors that have begun to lose their silvering and I still think leather bound books are a treasure even as their spines splinter and unravel under the pressure of a long life. I honor the craftsmanship that cannot be replicated today and that has been forgotten or shoved to the side as unnecessary and frivolous. I save things at my job every day, works on paper in such bad condition after being exposed to the elements and that which is life that they’re financially meaningless but mean everything to those who love them in spite of their damage.

Fumi Yanagimoto