Twenty or so years ago when I was in college and taking a creative writing class, I invented a being called the Salvage Angel.

Salvage angels are a branch of the angel family tree. The hierarchy of angels as understood by any given society tends to reflect that society. I suspect that salvage angels are the equivalent of the ladies and gentlemen who collect all the day-old bread and slightly brown vegetables from the grocery stores and make sure that they get handed on to people who are hungry.

I honor those folk more than I can say for the work they do. And I think we need the salvage angels to help us through the coming hard times as the Baby Boomers approach old age and the earth warms up. The salvage angels find all the things that aren’t wanted by people anymore and store them away until they are wanted.

Remember that teddy bear that you slept with every night until you were twelve? Whatever happened to it? When you reach the age of fifty, and suddenly your knees give out, and the testosterone isn’t as strong, the salvage angels think you might need the teddy bear again.

So, when you realize that you are feeling a little insecure about life, and that your old friend might be a comfort, you can call on the salvage angels. Somewhere in their magical warehouse that is infinitely large, is your teddy bear. If you can describe it, with love, to the salvage angel on desk duty, the salvage angel will fetch it for you.

Salvage angels also save ideas for us. They say that ideas are important, and that they are constantly being recycled. One of the ideas that they have been saving for a generation or so, waiting for people to begin asking for it again, is the idea of thrift. They have a whole wall full of thrift ideas waiting for people to reclaim.

One idea that was recently put back into circulation was the idea of bringing your own bag to the grocery store. Another thrifty idea involved handing down clothes. That one never completely disappeared, but got difficult when clothes began to be designed in such a way that they wore out after one season.

The salvage angels filed the old knitting and sewing patterns away and are waiting for the idea of quality not quantity to come back around again. Salvage Angels are the patrons of all antique, thrift, and consignment stores.

Salvage angels as I drew them aren’t the usual stern but beautiful angels popular to renaissance artists. They look like the ladies and gentlemen who work in the thrift stores and those who live on the streets. They don’t appear in a blinding light, but drift quietly from dumpster to dumpster, sorting out what is worth saving, and what really needs to go. They are dressed in baggy clothes, look aged and ancient, and have a certain briskness about them. They have a mission, and it isn’t getting any easier.

Recently, the salvage angels held a meeting, and decided to go public. After Hurricane Katrina, they were overwhelmed with the amount of work they were called upon to do in Louisiana. At a planning retreat, they looked at the number of major cities located on coast lines that are due to be flooded if the ocean water levels rise any more, and decided that they needed to begin salvage operations now.

So, they are quietly infiltrating all our major cities, positioning themselves to salvage all the things that are worth saving. They hope that it won’t be necessary, that the message will get out and that people will begin to salvage the important things from their childhoods and past lives themselves. However, just in case, they are ready. I find that idea very reassuring right now.

Megan Havens is the chief administrator of Nestucca Bay Waldorf School, which exists in blog space, and is the school she wishes she could teach at. She has too many children and step-children, but no grandchildren. Her youngest son says that her short height matches her short temper. She says that 5’6” isn’t short.