BROKEN BARRETTE
By:
August 31, 2025
Cross-posted from Josh Glenn and Rob Walker’s story telling experiment GIVE IT UP. Earlier this month, GIVE IT UP mounted exhibitions of meaningful objects in venues around Kingston, NY… and asked the general public to help persuade the experiment’s participants to let these objects go.
HILOBROW readers, we need your help! After reading the story here, click on the response link below and share your advice with the author…
I know it will be the first thing I see because it always is: the tarnished, broken barrette that has been withering away next to the sink for the past year. It sharply contrasts with my delicate, dainty bathroom. It’s embellished with off-white fake pearls that have become dull with age, and the back of the bronze metal clip has been permanently bent backward, rendering it non-functional in more ways than one. One of the pearls has fallen off, leaving a vacant space where dirt now gathers.
It used to be pristine, though. Elegant and dignified, the emblem and finishing touch of an impressive, chic outfit. Once, it was a gift that I had felt honored to receive — a gift that delighted me because someone had seen this beautiful piece and thought of me.
It sees me at my best and at my worst, the barrette. Its presence and existence serves as proof that even after something changes in a way that alters its core, it can still exist. Even if it does not look the same or no longer serves its original function, it can serve a different purpose.
I wash my face, staring at myself in the mirror as I consider whether it’s time to get rid of the barrette. Growing up, my mother always told me most mistakes could be fixed. I could soak the metal in a cleanser, find a pearl online and use a hot glue gun to secure it onto the clip. I do not know why I do not fix it: maybe because it is not asking to be used, only asking to be seen without being discarded. I wonder if it will ever be. It wonders the same about me.
I choose to keep the broken thing, knowing it cannot provide me with any practical benefits and also knowing that to throw it away without even trying to fix it, let it enter a landfill and simply replace it, would feel morally worse than its quiet, persistent daily presence. To get rid of it would mean to support the destruction of something solely because it was once pure and now it is tainted, therefore it has become worthless. This is a message I am not willing to send, even if the only recipient is myself. I keep it despite knowing I could buy a functional and cheap replacement for it. I keep it because although one pearl might be missing, thirty-seven are still glued tight.
The pearls glisten in the moonlight.
If you were in Karlie’s place, what would you do with the barrette? Please SUBMIT YOUR PERSUASIVE RESPONSE HERE.
All GIVE IT UP stories can be found here.