HUMILITY PLAQUE

“Sending this message out into the world would be a mitzvah.”

Will Hermes might be persuaded to give up this significant object… but we’ll need your help. Read the following nonfiction story, then SUBMIT YOUR PERSUASIVE RESPONSE HERE.

Not long before my mother died, when she had to move to assisted living, my sister and I packed up her earthly belongings. We had to decide what to dump and what to keep. And when she died, we had to divvy up what remained.

My mom loved books and liked to write, traits I inherited. I took boxes of letters and (as I recall her conceding) her not-great poems, telling myself I’d go through them some day. I kept the best of the books, along with a small wall plaque that says Ancora Imparo—supposedly a quote from Michelangelo, “I am still learning.”

I’m not sure if my mom got it as a gift, or bought it from one of the highbrow junk catalogs that perpetually filled her small mailbox off the apartment’s lobby. She displayed the plaque on her bookshelves alongside other tchotchkes, leaning it against some random book spines. I’ve displayed it for the past few years as she did, moving it aside or to another shelf when necessary. Sometimes I felt it was clutter, but I always loved the sentiment. It’s one that my mother, a life-long learner, held dear to her heart. She passed the sentiment on to her children, and I hold it no less dear to my own heart.

Today men and women possessed of dubious intelligence present themselves as clenched fists of certainty, hammering out social media posts or overhauling public policy in direct contradiction of proven facts. For that reason, I feel sending Michelangelo’s message out into the world would be a mitzvah, a good deed, so that people might be reminded to cherish learning—and by extension, teaching—and to, in the learned words of Kendrick Lamar, be humble. It’s a sentiment enshrined in ersatz bronze, cast from an original carving (according to the label), so eyes will be pulled to it. If the plaque were made of gold, maybe more who need the message would value it.

If I let it go, I hope the Ancora Imparo plaque finds a good home and does some good work. My mom would be delighted by that.

— WILL HERMES

About the author.

Please SUBMIT YOUR PERSUASIVE RESPONSE HERE.

Read all object stories here.

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You can commune in person with this object (and 10 others) at solo exhibits in Kingston (NY) from August 15–September 1, and at a group exhibit — at Camp Kingston — from September 3–10. The object essays will be read aloud, and the most persuasive responses announced, at the GIVE IT UP project’s wrap-up party (open to all) on September 10. Join us there!