Think of your most precious thing. Let’s say it’s a silver watch your granddad gave you. It’s a big, old-fashioned watch that hangs on a silver chain, very shiny, and when you wind the button on top it makes a delicious clicking sound. Somehow, as if by magic, it feels warm when you hold it, like your granddad has just passed it to you.
Then you lose it. At first you think it will turn up round the house but it’s not in any pocket or under any cushion. You start to look in more unusual places: behind the loo, in the fridge. Finally, in desperation, you search through the kitchen bin with your bare hands. But no, it’s nowhere to be found.
Several days go by and it dawns on you that you’ll never see that watch again. It’s gone, gone, gone and nothing you can do will ever bring it back. And it seems you can’t stop thinking about it. If only you could lay your hands on it right now and feel the clickiness of its button, the magic warmth of its silver case… but no, you can’t. And for a while, the very thought of it becomes a torture. What could possibly make you feel better? Nothing could replace that watch…
But imagine that there is one thing in the world just as precious, one thing just as special. What could it be? Where could it be? If only someone could find it and bring it to you right now, then everything might just be alright once more.
Daniel Jamieson