The ordinary shoe in a display reminds you that history had to walk somewhere.

Grand accounts of the past run on dates and decisions, and they leave out the fact that everyone in them had feet, weather, and somewhere to be by evening. A worn shoe behind glass puts the body back into the story. It says that whatever else was happening, someone laced these up and went out into an ordinary morning. Scale returns the moment an object shows wear.

In the next old building or display you visit, find the plainest thing there and stay with it a minute. Ask who used it daily, and what their afternoon looked like around it.