I have a collection of jars and each of them are filled with a mismatched array of screws left over from a long list of household projects: building our backyard deck, fixing the fence, installing drywall in the garage, assembling a doghouse with the kid, and a long list of other things I’ve long since forgotten.
Whenever I need to fix something, work on something or the urge strikes to connect two pieces of wood for some reason, I rummage through the screw jars and inevitably I find what I need.
I hadn’t realized that not everyone does this. I assumed that it was just a universal trait of the average, everyday, homeowner: keeping a jar or two of mismatched screws on the shelf for those just-in-case moments.
But no, and rather I have started to believe that it is more the habit of the creatively minded. A jar of screws has the potential to be useful in the future. And in the same way I also keep loops of string and bits of interesting wood I find on a walk or a bag of curious stones from the river or lists of writing ideas or recordings of curious sounds or introspective thoughts that lead to no where in particular… at least not yet.
But maybe someday that junk will be worth more creatively than the collection itself.
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