About Worth and Value

I don’t remember when or why I started watching Antiques Roadshow. I just know that watching it has become something that I look forward to and that my desire to go to the show has led me to make Spring Break plans that are slightly different than my norm. I will fly to Phoenix late Sunday night, spend Monday being a tourist guided by a local; go to Roadshow on Tuesday; spend Wednesday being a tourist guided by a local; then fly home Thursday morning. I know that we’re going to the Phoenix Zoo and to Sedona National Park, and I know that the Roadshow is at the Botanical Gardens, but other than that, I am at the mercy of my hosts—two friends of my friend Washington—a wild, strong, resilient, Yoga-loving teacher friend whom I had the privilege of teaching with at Johnsonville for five years.

I’ve been dreaming of this trip for over a year. (Well, not this specific trip, but a trip to Roadshow in general.) In case you don’t know the format of the show, here it is: Thousands of people go to an appraisal event hoping to find that they have a hidden treasure. Most people do not. A handful of people do. The latter are selected for filming and their heirloom is then aired as an educational piece on PBS. Some heirlooms are “worth” a lot of money. Others are worth a lot historically or sentimentally. Some people are ready to sell their treasures (not at the Roadshow because that’s strictly forbidden) while others swear they will never get rid of them. My favorites are when people have something that’s just been laying around the house or that they’ve used/worn/displayed for their whole lives and it turns out that it’s “valued” at some crazy amount of money. Last week, a couple took a mobile that they’d inherited from the wife’s grandmother and hung in the yard as decoration. The mobile, by some famous artist, ended up being valued between $600,000 to $1,000,000!!!!

But I digress…

I’ve been dreaming of this trip for over a year…because, well, I’ve been dreaming of being one of the persons with a hidden treasure chosen for educational filming. I know. It’s dumb. The chances of being chosen for filming are about the same as winning the lottery. And yet. I dream of being on the show…and of the appraisers telling me that my item is worth some ridiculous amount of money…and me then being awestruck by the reality…

Yet. What reality is it really? Who, truly, determines something’s worth or value? I find myself asking that question a lot. I find myself wondering who would pay $600,000 to $1,000,000 for a mobile that looks like it is made of coat hangers. But then I remember that there are collectors for everything—after all, I collect orange fish. And I suppose something’s worth and value lies in what someone is willing to pay for it.

Our worth and value as humans must be pretty high because Jesus paid his life for us.

But I digress again…

What I did not factor in to my dream was traveling to the Roadshow. It’s hard to travel with artwork and fragile family heirlooms when traveling by plane. Arizona is a bit to far to get to by car. And so…I don’t know what I’m going to take with me when I leave on Sunday. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. My family has been thinking about it for weeks. I am still uncertain about what is going to make it into my bag…except for this: My Grandfather’s WWII Scrapbook. It’s a beautifully complete record of his time in the army, and I am hoping that the appraisers can help my family learn a little about a map that we know nothing about.

Did you hear that? I’m hoping the appraisers can help me learn.

You see, I’m slowly giving up on my hope of being on camera with a precious heirloom worth thousands of dollars. Instead, I’m quietly adopting the hope that I will learn something that I did not know before the trip. Yes. I would like to hear that I have an object “valued” at a high dollar amount. Wouldn’t everyone? But, in the end, I think that maybe experience and knowledge are where worth most heavily lies. And I have a feeling that this unlikely experience of going to Phoenix, Arizona, for Antiques Roadshow with Washington is going to be “worth” more than money could ever buy.