A snippet on the radio, out of context, where someone declared an object completely useless. It caused me to ponder. Things that are made, are generally made for a purpose, thereby the objects are given the label “useful”. Often, the objects are tested in real-life conditions, and fail in different ways. The object then earns the label “useless”. All this is based upon human experience.

The trouble with this structure is that with time, the specific purpose is sometimes lost, and the labeling system continues apace. When a society declares something useless, it often means that the current rhythm of life has no patience for it. It is not the object that is useless, but the frame that has shifted.

An interesting point, it is not the object that has changed, it’s the purpose, and maybe even that is still valid, it’s just lost.

Then again, every so often, someone remembers, and the thing—once dismissed— finds its hand again. Uselessness was only amnesia.

Objects have a way of slipping their first purpose, and waiting to be found by a different one. They are patient. We are not.

At the edge of use and useless there is a quiet place where meaning pauses. Not everything has to hurry back into the center.