Well Chosen Friends

It is a very soft piece of leather.  I remember it for the tactile quality most of all.  Most bookmarks are paper or cardboard or sometimes metal, but this one was kind to the touch.  It was given to me by my cousin from NY when I was about 9 or 10.  Perhaps it was her mother, my Aunt who picked it out, but when they left for home after this West Coast visit they presented one to me and my sister.  I can't remember much about the one my sister got, but it was similar only mine had an owl on the top.  Her's was another animal, but I can't specifically recall.
This morning, right after I awoke, I thought of the soft owl bookmark.  It has an adage that read, "Books like friends should be few and well chosen."  Pretty good advice for a 10-year-old.
I've chosen many books and fewer friends since receiving that bookmark.  Somehow, because it lived inside a book, the little trinket has survived on my bookshelf and is actually in fairly good condition for being over 60 years of age.
For a minute I thought I might not find it.  hen I remembered, if I still had it, there was only one place it could be.  I visualized the bookmark inside a red perma-bound copy of The Catcher in the Rye.  There it was, smiling back and soft as ever.  For the last 30 years or so, that bookmark has resided in that book.  I taught that book to high school juniors many times.  Oh, I know it's regarded as an "old chestnut" among literary critics and many educators.  I get that, but the book, if taught conceptually, can apply to any person, any time, anywhere.  We all have a childhood.  We all experience some sort of loss of innocence.

The J.D. Salinger classic was so different in unreliable narrator and teenage voice when it was published that some critics never took it seriously.  The potential that comes with teaching this book to a group of sometimes reluctant readers is huge.  That's where that little bookmark comes in.  My students were asked to bring to class an object that represents their childhood.  Early on in a semester, it's a good way for each class member to introduce themselves to the class and for the class to learn something about them.  Oh, the stories.  I would model the 5-minute presentation by sharing an object from my childhood.  Usually, it was my Little-League baseball glove, but I put that bookmark inside my copy of the book in case I ever forgot to bring in the glove.  Both have good stories that provide deeply drawn symbols for childhood.
Lately, I'm wondering what will become of both the book and the bookmark.  If I put it out in the universe, perhaps it will live to find new meaning(s) for someone else.