The Key to Happiness

For the last couple years now I have seen antique keys used as decorations on walls in many furniture catalogs and on home design television shows.  Sometimes arranged above a desk or a bed in different sizes and colors, I find them so intriguing. 


Even though I know the keys of today are just made to look old while not actually being old, my mind always wanders as if they are in fact old, and I wonder about the people that owned them and the places they opened.  Was it the key to a backyard workshop, cabin in the woods, or home worked tirelessly to afford?  Do they represent happiness worked for and achieved?


Just yesterday, I was at Antique Anthropology in Nashville, TN and found a basket full of old photos and similarly stood in the store flipping through them all.  Looking at the faces, I saw well dressed men and women from a time when having your photo taken was an event and not an hourly occurrence done simply by sticking your arm out.  I wondered about their lives and how a once treasured family keepsake ended up in a store for $3 each.  Hopefully each of them found happiness in life.