It's about the connection

That’s really all it’s about. Connection. Connections.

Look around. There’s probably something next to you that you feel some sort of connection towards. If anything were to happen to that particular thing you would feel like something’s gone wrong somewhere in the world. And then when you take a step back, you realize that it’s really only a thing. An object. Probably made out of plastic (as most things are nowadays). Most probably replaceable at a store near you. The store probably has thousands of them just like yours. But you wouldn’t want those. You’d want yours. Because somehow it feels different to others. Even if you closest friend has one just like it. You still prefer yours.

Yes, the connection we as humans have with objects is quite amazing. To me it’s what makes us human. Imagine if you were surrounded by millions of things and you felt nothing towards any of them.

What would the world mean to any of us if nothing in it meant anything? We’ve come up with a phrase for it; “sentimental value”. Basically the amount of feelings you have invested in that particular object. That it reminds you of something. Of someone. Of somewhere. But does anything change when it’s not there? Maybe. But for how long? A day? Not likely. The longest you’d “feel empty” is most likely to be less than a couple of hours. And in most cases far less.

I personally have a lot of things around me that I feel I shouldn’t be so attached to. Because the reality is, shit happens. Phones break. Laptops get stolen. Cars break. You break your favourite coffee mug. The list goes on and on and on. But can you honestly say you’ve lost a part of you? Literally? I don’t think so. Everything in this whole world is replaceable. Every single thing that was ever made by man; is 100% replaceable. Everything. What aren’t replaceable are the feelings towards that particular object. You obviously won’t feel the same way towards it as you did its predecessor; but it’s more often than not, exactly the same as your old one if not better.

But the fact of the matter is that it is replaceable.

Holding on to old things for ages, might sound like such a sweet thing to do, but in all honesty, you’re just a glorified hoarder. I’ve got a number of things I’ve kept for ages, and every time I come across them I convince myself that the longer I keep it, the more it’s gonna mean one day when I show it to the person concerned on some “hey, still remember this?”. But those days never really seem to come. So I keep stashing the stuff again. That’s really a total waste of time.

I’ve lost a couple of friends and friendships over the years and not one compare to any material thing I’ve ever lost over any given space of time. The thing about losing people it that we often think we can always get other people to replace the ones we are willing to give up.

Human interaction (in all its forms) is important to me. In most cases you find yourself constantly preoccupied by a lot of distractions and so on, without much regard to who you are with, more concerned with what activity you’re doing with that person.

Maybe I’m over-thinking this whole thing.

Maybe not.