Archive - Object-ives of Open Secrets Magazine

Object-ives #36: TV Guide Ruled My Childhood

The magazine was a comfort and a liferaft for my autistic mind

May 22 • Jessica Gentile

Object-ives #35: Slippery Soap and the Wrinkle People

A bath-time ritual, an imaginary family, and the small plastic soap figure that helped us through

May 15 • Nettie Reynolds

Object-ives #34: My Mother’s Photographs

Why I’ve held on to photos of a woman who was cruel to me as a child

May 8 • Dianne Moritz

Object-ives #33: The Bracelet My Mother Bought Me

The Christmas gift I always hate

May 3 • rr blackwood

April 2026

Object-ives #32: My Own Steel

My mother wanted a girl who was safe, not one who could wield an Irish hand-and-a-half sword

Apr 24 • Catherine Cornell

Object-ives #31: Heartwood: How My Humble Cutting Board Came to Speak Louder Than Words

My brother’s complicated legacy lives on in this gift he made me

Apr 17 • Kris Kleindienst

Object-ives #30: J’Adore My Anorak of Armor

In 1990, I blew some grant money on a J.Crew anorak; 36 years later it’s still protecting me from all the elements

Apr 10 • A Long Story

Object-ives #29: What Price Nostalgia? $495 Plus Shipping

The heartbreak of a discarded concert T-shirt

Apr 3 • Melissa Meinzer

March 2026

Object-ives #28: My Necklace That Always Found Its Way Back

How a glitch in the matrix changed my life

Mar 27 • Sophie Berghouse, MD

Object-ives #27: The Sneakers That Traipse on Without My Grandma

How an old pair of shoes became impossible to part with

Mar 20 • Courtney Kocak

Object-ives #26: The Tissue in My Passport Wallet

A note on loving and letting go

Mar 15 • Kelly Bunch

Object-ives #25: Leaving Behind the Gargoyle

It isn’t easy to escape the gravitational pull of our things

Mar 6 • Launa

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