海角大神

When Monitor reader and friend Duncan Newcomer went to explore an 鈥渆motional value auction鈥� recently, he didn鈥檛 know quite what to expect. They鈥檙e happening in town fairs across Maine, and they look like an indoor yard sale. But there鈥檚 a twist.

All the items had personal notes. The owner of a 100-year-old cast aluminum teakettle had stolen it as a teenager. 鈥淣ever have forgiven myself for that transgression and I kept the kettle all these years to remind me lest I forget,鈥� the note read. A chicken creamer always made its owner鈥檚 husband gag at the sight of cream pouring out of the chicken鈥檚 mouth 鈥� a happy memory from a hard marriage.

So how were things exchanged? With a note of one鈥檚 own. The owner would decide who got it based on the response. 鈥淚 was not prepared to see something that I wanted so much,鈥� Duncan says. The 2019 red-and-gold Chinese appointment calendar was useless. But it was exquisite, and it awakened his fascination with all things Chinese. To the owner, a Chinese college student, it was a link to home, brought to Maine to fight loneliness.

When Duncan wrote his bid, he was not even thinking about how he would also find a friend when he received the book, hand-delivered by the student and her artist mentor. 鈥淏reaking out of COVID isolation never felt so good or valuable,鈥� he says. 鈥淪omething different, not consumerist capitalism, some spiritual economy was suggested.鈥� 聽聽聽聽聽聽