academia · iv · the keepers
The society's purpose is to keep. What is kept is a small set of items each of whose loss would matter: a ribbon, a thimble, a sealed envelope, a kettle that no longer boils, a watch that no longer keeps time. Each member is responsible for one item. The item lives at the member's address. It is not displayed. It is not lent. It is, in the keeper's word, simply kept.
The society meets rarely — three times a century, by tradition, though in practice the interval is governed by who is alive and who is willing to travel. When a meeting is called, the members bring their items in a small dark case and place them on a long table. Each keeper says, in turn, what the item is and that it is still there. After this the items are returned to the cases and the keepers go home. There is no discussion. There is no agenda. There is, however, an entry in the log, which is the only continuous record the society has.
Membership is hereditary, in a loose sense: the previous keeper proposes the next, often years before the handover, and the candidate accepts or declines by letter. The list of items is held by the custodian in their separate capacity. The society overlaps in spirit, though not in personnel, with the unfinished works society and with the smaller and more famous silence-observing society.