From time to time, when feeling vaguely haunted by a general sense of loss, it can be useful to turn to the oracles of online message boards for reminders of the abundance that has recently been found. For instance, a small but costly kite has been discovered in an ice plant container, along with some keys at the ledge of the walkway near the dog park. Someone walking along Chollas Creek recently came upon a skateboard, and a foray into the Costco business center led one unsuspecting traveler to discover the proverbial box of money.
It’s not just the bounty of these findings that’s worth noting, but the fact that person after person is going out of their way––after work, traffic, everyday aches and pains, in between nagging health concerns, personal grievances, and untold losses of their own–– to locate the rightful owner and return the treasure, resisting the age-old maxim of finders keepers.
I won’t comment on the sensitive nature of the personal items the dog keeps finding in the marsh, but there is reason to believe that they will be returned without any questions asked about how exactly they got in there. True, there is still no sign of the teeth that were left in a Skittles bag on a picnic table in Oak Park, but there is no shortage of found kittens ready to soothe the toothless without judgement. We are all on the lookout for the lost parts of ourselves, and what are we here for, anyway, if not to be ever returning them to one another?
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I have an odd fondness for taking inspiration from Craigslist ads. Although I have never actually used them to locate any goods, services, or people, I take great delight in reading them.
Now I really want to know what personal items were found.Lol.
Hah! It’s not specified, but I got a hearty chuckle, too, Granny. The reference to personal items reminded me of a Twitter thread I saw awhile back, with about 150 comments by dog owners who had photographed their dogs with an interesting array of these findings on proud display in their grinning mouths. : )
Found things: My lawn backs up to a swampy meadow with a wash running through it. For the 17 years I’ve lived here, we find softball-sized plaster animals partially submerged in the mud on the edge of the wash. Turtles, frogs, bunnies. No idea who left them there or when. The appear to be 25 to 40 years old. Finding the rightful owner of lost items is a principal tenet of the religion I made up in 2015. Unfortunately, I let it die as quickly as I created it.
Oh Jeff, this is delightful. What a wonderland! I can see how this would throw a wrench into the creed of returning things. Thank you so much for sharing this. This is going to live in my imagination for some time now.