THE VERY IMPORTANT COLLECTION 

An official invitation to collect things nobody else understands. 

DELIGHT No. 1

THE VERY IMPORTANT COLLECTION

An official invitation to collect things nobody else understands.

Most people collect something.

Some collections simply have better public relations.

Stamps?

Perfectly respectable.

Coins?

Historical.

Fine art?

Sophisticated.

But tell someone you have seventeen stones because each one felt particularly nice to hold, and suddenly there are questions.

😂

I think this is terribly unfair.

Therefore, The Little Book of Delight hereby grants you permission to begin a collection based on absolutely ridiculous criteria.

You might collect:

• Pebbles shaped vaguely like potatoes.

• Leaves with excellent personalities.

• Photographs of clouds that look suspicious.

• Tiny sticks that would make outstanding wizard staffs for mice.

• Buttons that seem to have escaped from interesting coats.

• Acorn caps suitable for very small soup bowls.

• Feathers you happen upon.

• Grocery lists found abandoned in shopping carts—with no identifying information, just the mysteriously human combination of milk, batteries, bananas, cat food.

• Photographs of things that accidentally have faces.

• Words you enjoy saying for no defensible reason.

• Things that are an unexpectedly pleasing shade of blue.

• Interesting shadows.

• Evidence that somebody had a very good day.

Or perhaps your collection cannot be kept in a box at all.

Collect moments when strangers are kind to one another.

Collect things your grandchildren say.

Collect overheard laughter.

Collect questions.

Collect photographs of the same tree through every season.

Collect recipes written by people you love.

Collect reasons to go outside.

Collect tiny proof that the world remains interesting.

The Rules

Fortunately, there aren't any.

Your collection does not need monetary value.

It does not need to become large.

Nobody else has to understand why Item Number Seven is clearly superior to Item Number Four.

You don't need matching containers.

You don't need to photograph it beautifully.

You don't even need to keep the objects.

Perhaps your collection exists only because you started noticing them.

That's enough.

One Important Requirement

Every proper collection deserves an unnecessarily official name.

Not:

“My Rock Collection.”

Absolutely not.

Try:

THE INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVE OF STONES THAT LOOK LIKE THEY KNOW SOMETHING

Much better.

A collection of oddly shaped carrots?

THE SOCIETY FOR VEGETABLES WITH AMBITIONS

Cloud photographs?

DEPARTMENT OF SUSPICIOUS SKY ACTIVITY

Interesting sticks?

THE ROYAL MUSEUM OF EXTREMELY SMALL WANDS

😂

You may even make a tiny museum label for your favorite specimen.

For example:

OBJECT 004

Small Grey Stone
Artist Unknown
Approximately Several Million Years Old

Found beside the mailbox while looking for something entirely different.

Not for sale.

Why?

No reason.

That's rather the point.

But something interesting may happen.

Once you decide to collect a particular kind of ordinary thing, you begin seeing it everywhere.

The world hasn't suddenly produced more of them.

You started paying attention.

And now an ordinary walk has become a treasure hunt.

Which brings us dangerously close to a life lesson.

We can't have that.

Quick—

go find a pebble that looks like a potato.

TODAY'S IMPORTANT ASSIGNMENT

Find one completely ordinary thing that deserves to be the first object in a very important collection.

Give the collection a magnificent name.

No justification permitted.