Danny ChaiI left my backpack in Tresidder after the FiCS reunion. It had my iPod and Etymotics in there, along with some work related stuff. After about a week I had resigned myself to not getting it back, and I was fine with that. But lo and behold, out of nowhere, someone left a comment on my blog saying he found my backpack and that I could pick it up. How did he find my blog? And how did he associate me with the blog? No idea. Anyway, everything was still in the backpack. I love Stanford. Would this have happened at say, Duke? I think not. Random slam.
Have I ever explained my philosophy about things? I think I have, but whatever, I’m redundant anyways so what’s a little more. I strongly believe that we should keep just a tenuous hold on material things in this world. The way that works for me is, I will not buy anything that, were I to lose it, I would be very bothered by it. Kind of a vague criteria, but it makes sense and works for me emotionally. Basically, I don’t want to care about material things too much.
I never bought a guitar in college because I knew I’d care about it too much and be devastated if I lost it, and I didn’t feel right about having that attitude towards something. And that attitude toward a guitar has kind of inertiad its way to today even though now it’s a negative thing that’s inconveniencing other people.
I don’t want to pull the trigger on a new car because I know I’ll care about it, whether it gets dented, scratched, stolen, whatever. With my Corolla, anything can (and has) happen to it and I basically don’t care. I like that freedom.
So the way I’ve been is, before I buy or get anything, I always ask myself, if I get this, will I be too attached to it? Will I care about it too much? Think about it too much? Despair too much if I lost it? If so, I don’t get it. Works for me.
There are negatives to thinking like this. To be honest, I think the mindset has been more stoic or Buddhist in terms of detachment rather than a Christian perspective on belongings. I say this because I’ve found myself in the past trying to be detached from relationships in addition to things, for roughly the same reasons – to ultimately avoid being hurt. And that’s off, right? We should pursue and become attached to relationships even knowing full well that we will possibly, maybe even certainly, be hurt by them.
So how to be detached from things but not to people is something I’ve not yet mastered.