Ground Condition Gift-Ish Guide 2024

The case for intentional collecting—and why rocks make the perfect present

Last year’s gift guide entailed some personal rules for giving, intended as a rubric to find your own fill-in-the-blank for the people you love. (To summarize: platonic ideals, museum stores, grandiose themes, in-person shoppings, small treasures, spoiled rottens, and so on.)

This year, I am already bored silly by the sheer amount of guides as well as the hyperlinking of it all. Anyone can browse online and post the same-old squeeze bottle of olive oil; not everyone possesses higher-order wisdom. (The ones most worth our collective time express a ton of personality, are highly practical, or cast an unerring eye toward beauty.)

For holiday 2024, I’m taking a different tack. This year’s present mission digs into topic expertise with a strategy in mind: starting a collection. A couple of weeks ago, I visited the design and craft gallery Somewhere Someplace in Santa Fe, and the owner, John Radtke, asked if I was a collector. Honestly, I am not, although it felt shameful to admit it.

It did get me thinking: When does an object or thing not just equal more stuff? The answer is found in a collection, and the reasoning is as follows: