Letter A, and two questions

[asakiyume]

Spent some time walking along the side of the highway today. I always feel strange and liminal when I do that because it's not something people generally do. The shoulders can be narrow, cars and trucks can be going fast--it's not set up to be walked along. It's a strange sensation to move through space in a way that no one is expecting you to. It can make me feel like I have superpowers: since I'm covering the space at a different speed, from a different vantage point, I'm able to notice things that otherwise don't get seen.

Like today. I discovered this Letter A lying on the shoulder:



It's 3.5 inches by 3.5 inches by 1.25 inches. From the front it looks like a child's alphabet block, but only one face is carved and painted, and it's not a cube. And it's pretty roughly made:





Questions:

What do you think the original purpose or use of this Letter A was?

What, now, should or can the A stand for?

Comments

[gingicat]

Meant to be inset into something, I'm guessing? It could be someone's initial.

[asakiyume]

Could be--but I wonder at what would be the purpose of making, essentially, movable type. Like you'd only do that if you were changing something periodically, right? But what thing would you be changing? Like, if you had a sign advertising something--a business, say--that wouldn't change, so...

I recall somewhere there was a daycare called something like ABC Daycare. I wonder if this was the A from on top of that sign (except that I don't actually recall if they had letters like this on top of the sign--but even if they didn't, maybe a sign like that).

[heleninwales]

My first thought was that it might have been part of a sign. But then why doesn't it show any marks left by fixings? Otherwise, perhaps it was a practice piece made by someone trying out a new skill? Or a sample that was intended to be shown to a customer?

[asakiyume]

A practice piece is a good thought--that could be it.

[f0rrest]

The A represents lost childhood, abandonment, or something like that. I imagine some Bunyan-type carved it and used natural plant-based dyes for the coloring, for his child, who subsequently became lost in the woods, or something like that.

Whenever I see someone walking on the side of the highway, I always come up with these wild assumptions about the person, like something terrible has happened to them, or they're like homeless or unhomed or whatever we're calling it now, or they're like strung out on hard drugs, or they got into a big fight with their love who pushed them out of the car and drove off. I don't know.

[asakiyume]

Ahaha, I always imagine that that's what people think when they see people walking by the side of the highway, so I always try to walk Really Purposefully, like Look! I am Definitely in Full Possession of My Faculties and This Here is a Choice!

Also giggling at (a) the natural plant dye--perhaps it's indigo!--and like homeless or unhomed or whatever we're calling it now because yeah, it's really funny to see terminology changing right before our eyes.

[sartorias]

That's odd! It really does look like an old wooden building block. I wonder who would just leave it there!

[asakiyume]

It does, except it's bigger than most, and it's not a cube--it doesn't have the depth. It's very strange!

[wayfaringwordhack]

To me, your A find looks like something made by someone who was on the DIY decor letter train, along these lines: https://thistlewoodfarms.com/trash-to-treasure-diy-wood-block-letters/

So funny how I often think things similar to FoRREST when seeing people on the side of a highway. I, if I can, always want to stop and help them. So, I totally see why you Walk With Purpose. :D

A for Adventure, A for Amazing, A for (mon) Amie, A for Amour, A for Aimé(e) and Aimer, A for Aquisition (of an A), A for Anecdotes and Allegory. A for ARRÊT (which I will do now. LOL)

[asakiyume]

Wow, yes, it really does look like that sort of DIY decor letter! DIY decor letters! Who knew they were a thing?! (Well, you did! And lots of people must--just not me. But now that you say it, I could totally imagine my next-door neighbor having decor blocks like this, and if she were the DIY type, sure: she might make some.

And yeah, I certainly do imagine the stories of the people I see walking too. And sometimes people can use a lift, for sure. A neighbor of mine used to see a guy walking along the road on her commute, and eventually one day she asked him if he needed a lift: turned out he was walking like an HOUR to get to a job each morning. He didn't have a car and the (few) buses there were weren't at a good time for him. She gave him a ride for a while, and eventually he made other arrangements.

Love-Love-Love your meanings for A 💛 Mon amie que j'aime ... sans arrêt!

[wayfaringwordhack]

That was really kind of you neighbor!

Mon amie que j'aime ... sans arrêt! 🥰

[smokingboot]

If we are in the liminal lands, then it's a message to you. Perhaps it is A for Asakiyume!

As that is a name you write under, and A is at the beginning of the alphabet maybe it suggests you start

A story.

A something.

An Adventure!

[asakiyume]

Oooh, I like this! A for an Adventure! I will Advance Along those lines ;-) ... And do you know, until you mentioned it, I hadn't thought about A for Asakiyume. Very nice. It was DESTINY that I find you, Letter A!

[amaebi]

Perhaps it is a woodcarver's meditation on stonemason marks-- as the carver builds a wooden cathedral in their back pasture.

[asakiyume]

I love this-- a poem in one sentence. Beautiful.

[mallorys_camera]

How big is it?

Pretty sure it's some kind of stamp.

[asakiyume]

It's pretty big for that, but not impossible, I guess? Though the paint on it seems to be paint for decorating the object itself as opposed to for pressing onto something, stamp style.

It's 3.5 inches tall by 3.5 inches across by 1.25 inches thick.

[osprey_archer]

I think smokingboot has it right: A is for Asakiyume! And maybe also Adventure? At long last your call for a fantasy quest has arrived, in the figure of a carved A too large to be a stamp and too flat to be an alphabet block...

[asakiyume]

I feel a bit like I do when I try to play a video game, i.e., unsure of how I actuate the next step. Do I press something? slot the block into something? Shout yes to the universe? But maybe it's a matter of waiting. Maybe it's about to become abundantly clear!

[larryhammer]

I'mma take that and put it in Eaglet's room (it's their irl initial).

[asakiyume]

Awww! I should send it to you!

[light_of_summer]

My first thought was that it was meant for a house number, for a house that has an in-law unit that has an A added to the house's main address number.

It's kind of thick to be actually attached to a building, though, so I wondered if it was meant to sit on top of a fence, or maybe on top of a rustic wooden mailbox that sits on a post by the road. But I don't actually know if it's legal for people to make homemade wooden mailboxes, and if it was a store-bought metal or plastic mailbox, why wouldn't they just paint or stencil the number including the A on the side?

Then, I thought maybe it was somebody practicing carving blocks for block-printing, but if I look at it closely in the photos, I think commenter wayfaringwordhack is right, it's probably someone's glued-together home decor project.

I like the suggestions for what the A stands for in the other comments. The one addition that sticks persistently in my mind is: A is for Adventurine, a kind of rock that often comes in a beautiful green color. I have a polished piece of adventurine that's pleasant to hold in my hand. I'll leave it to you to decide whether you want to look up adventurine's scientific info &/or new-age-y "meanings." (The link above just goes to a Wikipedia photo of some polished adventurine pebbles.)

Re walking along a highway, do we get to know why you were doing this?

Interesting that it can make you feel like you have sensory observation superpowers. The two memories I currently associate with walking along a highway are very different: one is just of traveling and stopping to photograph a few things along the side of (probably) U.S. Highway 101—a pleasant memory.

The other memory is of a time when I was in my late teens and a fairly new driver. I took the family car out to a beach, one evening, for some alone time, and accidentally got the car stuck in the sand. I had to walk back the way I had come, along a fairly deserted highway-like two-lane road, for what was probably three quarters of a mile or so, with a flickering flashlight (and inconveniently only then recalling newspaper articles about women's dead bodies being found in the area), until I could get to an operating industrial plant's gate kiosk where I could borrow a phone.

Fortunately, it all worked out fine: no one accosted me, I didn't fall in the dark, and the kiosk attendant was fine with me borrowing the phone. I called Dad, and he wasn't even mad, and he either arranged for a tow truck to come pull the car out, or reminded me that I could do that—I forget which. And the tow truck driver was prompt and friendly and winched the car back onto the paved road.

And so, I drove home with a vivid memory and a story, having learned never to try to drive a standard two-wheel drive car on sand.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[asakiyume]

What a great rock name! Adventurine! I did an image search, and it's very pretty.

My reason is very boring: I had dropped my car off for an alignment, and my husband's away and I didn't feel like bothering anyone to give me a ride. I've done this lots of times--I like the walk. But it's not one many people make. So yeah: I walked back home from dropping off the car, and then I walked there to pick it up again. It was on that walk that I found Letter A.

VERY glad your highway-walking adventures left you with memories and lessons but nothing else more ominous!

[light_of_summer]

Me, too! 😅

And that is a perfectly good reason to be walking—healthful, kind to the planet, and inspiring of your blog post, which wasn't at all boring! 😏/\😊