Oct 04 2008
These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things
Lottie bought me a ring in Galway about 4 years ago. It’s a silver ring with the Lord of the Rings thingy on it – “One ring to guide us, one ring to blah blah blah“. I’m not a Tolkien fan and have only seen each of the movies once. I have seen no DVD commentaries, nor have I been to a convention. I just really liked the look of this ring we saw in the jewelery store window and Lottie bought it for me. I love it. Honestly, every time I look at it I feel something. Happy that I have such a great girlfriend, reminiscent of times past, sad that I’m stuck in work and am neither with Lottie nor in Galway. It reminds me that most of the greatest times of my life occurred when it was just me and her. It’s wonderful to have many friends around you, but it’s truly special to be able to share your life with just one. The ring is a small thing, but I love it.
Not long after my Granny passed away, I got a gift from my aunt. She’s my uncle’s second wife and I don’t really know her well. I don’t know her at all really. She gave me this gaudy glass picture frame, not anything I would pick for myself, and in it was a picture of me and my Granny on my sister’s confirmation day. She is sitting in my parents’ sitting room, looking glamourous as ever and I am sitting beside her in my blue shirt, yellow Bugs Bunny tie and mustard waist coat, with a blade 2 haircut. It’s the gayest I have ever looked. And yet, I treasure this present. It always has one of the prime photo positions in our sitting room.
Just over one year ago my biomammy came up to Dublin to see me and to celebrate my birthday with me for the first time since I was born. She drove all the way from Clare, just to see me and I took an extra long lunch break (which seems a little feeble now) to meet her for lunch. We went to Pacino’s restaurant at the bottom of Grafton Street and chatted away like we had known each other for many years. I loved it and I can say unreservedly that it was one of the greatest days of my life. At one point during the meal, she nervously produced a box, my birthday present. I wasn’t sure what to do – to rip it open, to save it until later, to casually unwrap it while still deep in conversation? She went to the bathroom and I tore the box open. In it was a beautiful Armani watch and underneath was an inscription – “To Darren, Love Teresa, 02-08-07”. I have worn it every day since then and I adore it. I look at it and am reminded of how lucky I am to have the wonderful life I do.
These are, indeed, a few of my favourite things. I am fairly materialistic and I do hoard a lot of junk, but these fall among the list of possessions that I treasure. If there were things I would grab as I legged it from my burning apartment, these would be included. I wonder if other people have some small items that mean this much to them – simple items that may not mean much to other people, but hold a special meaning to them?
I see what you’re doing there. Tut tut tut.
tracing commenters through their IP addresses, thieving their precious stuff and holding it to ransom is bold, Darren. Devious and bold!
Things I’d try to take in the event of fire? Camera, phone, laptop, pen, moleskin, The Alchemist, bag to carry it all in.
Great post Darren. Really got me thinking about my favourite things. I consider myself pretty un-materialistic and certainly not sentimental, but I felt sure that there were a few precious items I would be devastated if I lost, but you know what, I can’t think of any except living family members! I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing. Perhaps it’s because I’ve moved 23 times in my life and each time it was an exercise in “decluttering.”
I guess it should feel liberating, but in a way it feels kind of sad, that I have nothing tangible to hold onto.
I suppose, god forbid, if I lost someone I loved that would all change and I would grasp any physical memory I could.
Something to think about…
I have an itch that a young girl in Gran Cannaria gave me, precious and can’t seem to get rid of it either.
Sorry what was the question? parachute? what would i want with a parachute?
Sorry i wasn’t listening at the start…..
I have always tried to be very practical and make a conscious decision not to hang on to ‘stuff’.
That said, I know now I’d be lost without my wedding ring.
It’s the dullest, plainest piece of metal on the planet, and I don’t particularly even like wearing it, but when I’m a bit down, being able to feel it, or fiddle with it just calms me down a little.
The reminder that there is someone somewhere waiting just for you is the best pick me up I can imagine.
purple rabbit stuffed animal that was a gift for me on the day i was born… at the time it was the same size as me allegedly.
I had some lovely old treasures but the Bl**dy burglers have them now 😥
I have two teddy bears, one I gave to my son when he was born and one I gave to my daughter when she was born.
They are not precious and I am not at all sentimental but I love them.
your treasures sound lovely.
mine? my wedding ring (which until november is the engagement ring), a photograph of myself and my brother as kids, my bellydance costumes. and my fiancee and my stepdaugher, if they were in the house!
Mine would be a picture of my brother and his best friend taken a few weeks before they were killed, a picture of myself and my mam on holidays in the Canaries a few years ago and all the letters and cards I have received from himself.
I’ve been accused of being too mushy with this post. I actually enjoyed writing it and wanted to share. So feck the nay sayers.
@Darragh You have no heart.
@Deborah My brain doesn’t quite function correctly and my memory is a piece of shit. I think I need things, whether they be mementos or photographs, to trigger my memories. Once triggered I can remember things in such perfect detail. I can feel people, places and moments. But most of the time, my memory is just a brick wall. It saddens me when I try to picture someone, and the image just won’t come.
@Ben You should treasure that itch. You’ll miss it when it’s gone. 😉
@Xbox It’s a wonderful feeling alright.
@B’dum You cause me to stop when I read that. That really surprised me. What a lovely honest revelation
(You big girl) 😉
@Grannymar No way! That’s awful, truly. I’m so sorry.
@mary That’s my point. They don’t have to be expensive or big things. It’s usually the feeling that are attached to them that are important.
@Tatty Congratulations! And I’m glad you’d take your fiancée and step-daughter along too. 🙂
@Mary It’s strange how important photos have become. And they said the digital age would ruin the future of photography.
Darren, seriously, my Úilléann pipes. Some of my worst and best memories have been from times when I’ve played the pipes.
Weddings, gigs abroad and of course, the bad. Funerals of family members, friends and even perfect strangers.
One funeral I played at that really sticks in my mind was of a man shot in Dublin. He was in his very early twenties and had a young family. I remember playing first at the funeral home while they removed his body to the church. The crying and general air of devistation in the air was truely heart breaking. But, this was only a small gathering compared to that at the grave yard. Being around people as they say their final good buys to a loved one who has been killed at such an early age is really a defining and very difficult experience.
On the other hand though, I’ve played at concerts and gigs outside Ireland where the energy projected by the croud is more intoxicating than alcohol and more relaxing than a week of sleep. There’s nothing in the world that can beet the emotion you can cause and recieve from playing an instrument like the Úilléann pipes.
They were baught for me by my father, hand made by a man in Kerry and although they have their own posative and negative characteristics, I’ll never part from them.