Great post Vandoo,
I collect because I am tied to a business that has prevented me from traveling for many years.
At first, collecting was to bring things to me from exotic lands that I have never seen.
Then it was to develop relationships with people all over the world that I might go see when I can travel.
Then it was a fascination with different cultures, religions, art, languages and the artifacts that were precious to these people.
I hold a finely forged weapon and think about his birth. a prospective owner visits a craftsman. The owner is quizzed and measured. Often a sword or keris was created for a certain purpose -- for a certain person. .
Once the measurements and questions are done, the creation begins.
Hammered in a blazing forge. Sparks flying. An apprentice pumping the bellows. The panday sweating, his hands guided by his love for the steel. Shaping it. Folding the metal back. Working on auspicious days. Fasting and praying before he picks up his hammer. Certain ingredients in the steel, Secret chants and potions.
In many societies he is feared, but respected. You don’t want to invite him to parties – but you better! He works a strange alchemy with steel and spirit.
The forging done, the metal is ready for filing and finishing. How many other blanks were discarded as not being good enough? (Sold on eBay later?)
Then the dress is carefully made. The steel of the blade and the scabbard and hilt come together. each part carefully made so that the pieces do not become jealous of each other. And they fit together perfectly.
The final work completed with sacrifices and incense in cooler place than the fiery forge. The spirit is invited in and the final touches put in place.
That process happened to many of the pieces I have collected.
I feel a strange thrill sometimes when I hold a fine weapon and know that people loved it for sometimes centuries, passed down through generations. To many families a sword was by far their most valuable possession. Oiled and cleaned by candle or firelight.
I have pieces that were possibly owned by Sultans or other very wealthy people. I have simple battle scarred veterans that fought hard. I have pieces that were used by professionals, plain, simple, deadly.
And I wonder why they let it go. Did they fall on hard times? Did a younger generation see little value in it? Did they begin to realize that guns might be better at killing?
Which of these weapons killed people? These weapons that I am holding? Did the person who loved this weapon get killed and an enemy take their weapon home with them?
Now I am still curious about all the above, and I am now more curious about the weapons themselves. many of these pieces were made with spiritual intent. Some seem to have spirits living in them. Sometimes the spirits are sad and lonely, or dormant.
Sometimes I hold a vacant house. Beautiful, but dead. and as a landlord, I wonder how I might get a new tenant who will be happy there? A new tenant who will help me as I provide shelter and food for them?
A Jen?
A conduit to ancestors?
Protection for me and my family?
A key to the invisible kingdom?
A source or a focal point of power?
A symbol that I can never understand, but still feel that connection to "something beyond?” And maybe that is enough.
And I wonder what will happen to these pieces when I move on? Sometimes I feel they should go home to their original countries. But what does that mean? A museum that may not really take care of them? A barn of a museum with no humidity or temperature control, so that they rust or the wood split?
I would like my pieces to go to people who will love and respect them as I do. I am now learning who those people might be.
And I am having the time of my life!
