The secret life of things
A thing is a thing. To humans, however, things make all the difference. They fill gaps in our lives in ways we never imagined. Consider this. A driver’s licence is a small piece of paper that says we can drive on a country’s roads.
“But also — the license, talismanic pass to life: we may flash it to fly, skydive, gamble, tattoo ourselves, pierce ourselves, marry each other, register an assault weapon, drink, smoke, chew, dance, see a striptease, see jazz in the clubs where it belongs