Seaglass.
And other seaside sundries. Today after I had kayaked out to a little rocky island in the middle of Long Island Sound I was enthralled by the vast quantity of whole shells with mother of pearl, sand and see smoothed shards of blue and green seaglass and enormous hunks of whole quartz. These treasures and their immense quantity far outweighed the meagre bits that drifted ashore at the main beach. With the salt water slowly sliding off my sunblocked skin and the sun, even slower, trying to dry my wet bathing suit, I suddenly I felt I was on vacation at a caribbean island.
I was also reminded of an ironic moment in Avatar: The Last Airbender when one of the characters, and older man called Iroh, brings in an armful of shells to his sullen Nephew, Zuko, saying "I will treasure these keepsakes for years to come!" Iroh was clearly pleased with himself, but Zuko snapped "We don't need any more useless things!"
Zuko was right, there isn't much they could have done with a bunch of shells. But in my case, every piece of mother of pearl I picked up, I thought about how I could make it into a piece of jewelry and add it to my homemade jewelry collection that I often sell. In the case of the bigger chunks of rocks and seaglass, it's true that they won't have any value past that day. Any intrinsic value, that is. And that doesn't matter. If a keepsake has value for one day only, it's still of worth. It gave the keeper enjoyment of that day, and happiness is always worth something.
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