Hang on, I have to post this

How do you know you’re looking at a good photo?

I’ll tell you how.

Look at the top edge. Follow it with your finger until you come to the center of it. If your fingers discover an unevenness, a small perforation, a pinhole – it’s a good photo.

It’s good because somebody deemed it worthy of display in the quickest and simplest of forms.

Somebody used a thumbtack to post that photo onto their wall, onto their door, onto their bulletin board.

They wanted to see that photo in passing every day. They wanted to admire the picture from an accessible vantage point. They couldn’t wait to have it posted. They couldn’t waste time looking for just-the-right picture frame. It had to go up the instant they realized what they were looking at. That’s a good photo.

The kitchen door of my mother’s house – the main door of commerce – is the display hub of greeting cards, crafts, and photographs. When I was younger, she would tack up the occasional stunner that my brothers and I brought home from art class. School photos and unique candids went up the moment they were pulled out of the just-developed envelope. Every Christmas, it was plastered in cards from faraway friends and relatives. This was and is the door that one must pass through every day, the portal to the outside world. And every time you walk through it, you take hold of the lion-head knob and swing all of those moments about before you can pass out. Every time you open that door, you set all of those accomplishments and masterpieces, people and thoughts, moments and memories into motion. And then they follow you as you take your first step out onto the cold stone platform that leads you into the wild wood of the world.

Those crafts, cards, and photos – they all have thumbtack wounds. They were all valued and immediately recognized as important pieces of life and were, thus, immediately stabbed through with the most convenient of fasteners: the thumbtack.

Thumbtacks pierced through all of those accomplishments and masterpieces, people and thoughts, moments and memories – and that’s how you know those are the important ones.

Today's topic was "Thumbtacks."
To read what others did with their thumbtacks, use the table below.

!!! - As an extra special motivation for this week's letsblogoff, for every "Thumbtack" post that goes up today, $10.00 will be donated to Jane Devin's Kickstarter fund in support of her book "Elephant Girl." Every review I've read has been filled with endless praise. I've only just gotten my copy in the mail and can't wait to crack it open. If you'd like to help Jane's book reach the attention of others, but don't have the time to write about thumbtacks, please visit her Kickstarter page and make your own donation. It will be so worth it.