The object at the back of the cupboard may be surviving because reaching it is inconvenient.

Difficulty of access is a form of preservation. The thing at the back has lasted precisely because nobody could be bothered to get to it, and its survival records inconvenience rather than value. We routinely mistake the two.

So when you find something that has lasted a long time, ask whether it was protected or merely unreachable. In your own life, some habits and beliefs are intact only because they sit somewhere awkward to examine. Pulling one out and looking at it in the light this week is worth the reach.