subvenire

Picking up a feather, an interesting rock, a pine cone, or the fragments of a robin's egg. Maybe your first collection was something similar. When we were kids, these found objects helped us to unlock our vocabulary and introduced us to a bigger understanding of the world. We didn't organize or catalog these. They were not ranked or prioritized. Everything that found its way home in our pockets and that we were allowed to keep, was somehow precious.

For some of us this changed along the way. Our concert ticket stubs piled up in a little box, scout patches were sewn on the top of our sleeping bags, hockey cards were traded, or postage stamps were steamed off of envelopes and mounted in albums with adhesive hinges. 

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Collectors accumulate related objects for some purpose. To study and compare, sometimes to display in an exhibition.  My own collections are sometimes more virtual by necessity. It would be hard for me to acquire and carry home manhole covers from my travels. Other collections are moments in time, meals or experiences. Images will have to do. I carry around in my head a list of these collections and they give me structure to observing a new place. It makes me receptive to noticing when I come across a new subject to add to the others.