The Skinny on this Weekend’s Show & Tell: From Shakespeare to Gorbachev and Lots in Between

By Grace Maselli

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a panoply of human experience at our Sunday, December 2 Show & Tell. And the naked truth is we had a ton of fun and some tears, too. Just under 20 TBT members and friends brought their wonderful Show & Tell items and regaled us with stories from Africa, Brazil, Russia, and Wesley Chapel, Florida. We sat in a giant circle with our bellies full of star fruit and eggplant, hummus and crab salad garnished with garden fresh greens to hear about favorite nanas and one-of-a-kind aunties who never had children of their own; one tale was of a beautiful ring with a light blue topaz stone and diamond chips selected by a very young son and paid for by a now-deceased but deeply cherished former husband. The ring is so precious to the owner that she passed it around by walking from participant to participant with the topaz still on her hand to avoid risk of loss. Now that’s an attachment!

Here are some quick additional highlights, a sampling in no particular order, of the other expressive, stirring goodies our generous participants brought to share, along with a table full of equally soulful potluckery:

• A genuine rubbing from Shakespeare’s tombstone in Stratford-upon-Avon, England;
• A 50-year-old Brazilian medicine-woman-and-midwife doll, from a country where our member lived as a child;
• A painting of Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev (sans birthmark) brought back from a member’s trip to Saint Petersburg, Russia, along with a mysterious piece of (we think) bone with holes in it found in a Virginia river. Consensus is it may be a musical instrument;
• Medical “handcuffs” from before the time of anesthesia (Yes, wincing is acceptable…);
• A cherished brooch from a beautiful aunt;
• An acrylic painting, a member artist’s rendering in lush colors of her backyard and the synchronicity story of how her house found her;
• Two pieces of vivid, hand-hewn glassware;
• A money plant shared between cousins;
• A handmade necklace made of silver and Tanzanite, with the stone found in Africa by the jewelry maker herself;
• A slender, sculptural statue of Mary, a revered object cherished by our participant’s mother, and now, her adult daughter;
• A homemade Buddhist altar complete with gemstones, Italianate glass, and paper birds.

What, dear reader, would you have brought to the TBT Show & Tell? Any other comments? Don’t be shy, leave a reply below!

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