What is lost can never be saved

I got a bit emotional today while I was watching a stream of Notre-Dame Cathedral burning. When I was young I had visited it, it was huge! An incredible building right in the middle of Paris. A landmark of landmarks, a piece of history. It’s such a loss, beyond any measure of value. A piece of a city, taken away.

We’ve probably all experienced such loss in our own communities, buildings taken by fire or water or time. Local hangouts or historical buildings that have always stood stoically in place. Lost forever… never to be recreated, not like they were.

I then thought about my hobby, I’m a little more than a year into it, collecting EMs and restoring them. Preserving them.

Honoring them.

“A feat of engeneering!” I tell people as I lift up the playfield to show wires and solenoids. A game, but so unique and unlike anything else. Truth be told, I probably enjoy fixing them more than playing them (although I do love playing them). Taking a part of history, a work of art, and caring for it. Bringing it back to be enjoyed again. I’m saving them! Saving them from the entropy of time, fire or water or whatever destructive element may try to take them away. I think “This piece of history is safe! At least… for a little while longer” when I look at my Doozie, recently restored and playing great. I’m doing my little part keeping pinball alive, in our hobby’s little corner of the world. It’s given me a newfound respect for collectors, those who value history and do what they can to maintain it.

Maybe I’m just waxing poetic, but I hope I'm not the only one.