A large stoneware pot for canning...

...the book Life According to Mister Rogers by Mr. Rogers, the VCR version of the game Candyland, a foot-high ceramic statue of a rodeo clown with a small dog beside him, men's athletic shoes, three baseball caps neatly stacked.

The rodeo clown looks as if it has a use but I can't quite fathom it.  One hand is lowered and has a cylindrical hole cut out.  It is the shape and size of a mostly-already-smoked stogie but somehow I doubt it is a stogie holder (is there such a thing?).  The other hand is raised and also has a hole in it, but it's more flattened than the other.  This latter puts me in mind of those statues I saw mostly when living on the east coast of the small black boy dressed like a jockey holding up a lantern in one hand and a ring to tie reins on in the other.  I've heard all sorts of stories about that statue, including that it was modeled after a real boy, a slave, who froze to death in that pose, so faithful was he, wanting to be ready to take the horse when his absent Master returned.  I am skeptical of this story, but it still raises my hackles.  The positioning of both hands on this rodeo clown also puts me in mind of various Eastern statues who are positioned with one hand raised palm up, the other down and palm down.  He is a rodeo clown Bodhisattva, offering blessing and gifts, and urging us to look within - yee-haw.

The baseball caps, the shoes and the ceramic statue seem of a piece to me.  They make me sad.  Some old guy - my story goes - carefully put these items together before moving from his apartment to a small assisted living suite.  Or to his adult daughter's closet-sized spare bedroom because she needs the extra income now that her boyfriend has moved out, and the old guy kept falling asleep, leaving still-lit stogies in his ceramic rodeo clown.  One day he might burn his apartment down and him with it.  He gathers and offers these items because they are precious to him but there's no room for them in his new life.  Perhaps someone will put them to good use, will be shod, head protected against the sun, and reminded to be mindful.