Artifacts passed down in a family, like the fan bought for a wife while fighting in a mid-century war, become the legendary objects of storage boxes; dated, veiled with dust and mystery. Who were those people then, before you were born or ever conceived of. When she first unfolded that precious gift was her smile the way you remember it? I thought of her while I carefully cut the fan apart and strung it onto a hollow cage. Unboxed and broken it appears more alive.
"We are homesick most for the places we have never known." - Carson McCullers