My grandfather's ax

From Rebecca Solnit's essay, The Memory of Ruins:

There's a saying to the effect that "this was my grandfathers ax, though it's had four new handles and three heads since his time," the idea being that the continuity of use and of tradition is more powerful than the incessant use of materials.... Memory is what makes it my grandfather's ax rather than some worn-out piece of detritutus; memory is meaning.