never understood tattoos for years. I finally got a bit of insight following a Becky Chamber’s book (I don’t remember the title) where one of the characters is a tattoo artist. It was noted (and I’m going from memory here) that tattoos shouldn’t just be a cute picture or a Japanese letter you know nothing about; a tattoo should be something of meaning from your past, or something that guides you into the future. And that’s the thing I’d missed; meaning.

While I don’t have a tattoo, I do have my own things like that. I keep items that have meaning. For example, when I was a young man, my dad showed me a pocket watch whose owner (presumably a Raymond) was lost in time. But I just dug pocket watches. Wrist watches I hated; they chafed and I was always at work looking at them. But a pocket watch, that was class. That was style. So with my first job, I bought my first pocket watch. I’ve always carried them. I was infamous in our 15 minute scrum meetings at work, when we were getting close, I’d pull out my watch and pointedly look at it.When I retired, three Indian ladies who worked remotely for me in Pune gave me a watch which I still wear. All the others are closed up in a glass case, all of them good friends that fit in the palm of my hand, ticking softly.

Another gift from another sweet Indian lady – Indian cart bells. I think she gave these to me after I’d come back from visiting India. They now hang in my Mini Cooper and I know I’m driving too erratically when the bells tingle. But when the window is down and they ting in the air flow, I think of her.

Young Japanese like to hang charms and ribbons on their phones (I’ve never seen an American do that). While I don’t carry a cell phone and it would be silly on my flip, I do have two charms on two of my computer bags. One is a tiny plastic bell (more of a rattle) that a coworker gave me. I rather liked it and hung it on my strap. The other was a religious charm I got from a church in Galloway, Ireland. I don’t even know the denomination; I just know I liked it and hung it on another computer’s strap.

Another thing Japanese like – these little embroidered strips that bring the bearer good luck in certain situations. It might be good luck for tests, in love, whatever. Mine, which I got in a shrine (or was it a temple, I get those confused) brings good fortune in traffic. I’ve tucked it into my bike bag and since I’m still alive, it must be working, right?

Got a brass bulldog paperwork of my grandfathers. Only recently, when I have come to open the window while I work at my desk, have I had need of it. Still, it reminds me of “Bugs”.

The most recent one comes from the little girl who hands out the bread sticks at our local Italian restaurant. We’ve talked to her about anime, manga and everything else (when we come in on Sunday nights, she’s just clocking out and likes to chat). Recently we found out that she is an artist looking for both a voice and an audience. We got to talking about the tough life of living your art and, when we were all done, she gave me a cute little sticker of a pink llama she’d drawn. It is cute and clever and it’s now stuck to the dash of my car so I can see it as I drive.

The last thing I’ll mention about tokens and charms is this – you do know that when you die, the people who sell your items in estate sales will shovel through all the meaningful items of your life and likely dumpster the lot of them. Our lives are sometimes nothing more than the detritus that wash around us.

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