"The dead don't get a vote, so the living write their lines for them, and the person writing the line is usually the same person who needs the money." - Ken Woodward
Mom handed me a plastic baggie with a ring and a note card. When she was twelve, her dying step-grandfather let her pick something from his shaving bag, and she chose his first wedding ring. Years later, a jeweler told her the ruby wasn’t real. Three weeks after Mom gave it to me, I gave it to my daughter.
This episode asks where I find value, and who gets to decide. I revisit my conversation with Rob Walker from episode 61 and his Significant Objects experiment, where invented stories turned thrift-store finds into collectibles.
Anil Seth’s work on perception helps me ask what changes when something isn’t what I believed, and what doesn’t.
Then I turn the questions on myself: my great-grandfather’s gold-tipped walking stick that I hold but don’t own, Jerry Colonna’s question about complicity, and what I’m willing to ask of the next generation.
This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.
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Keep questioning!