Objects of Affection
I can understand why we may grow to appreciate people over time, but what is it about objects that allows them to grow on us?
Here are three examples, starting with my first car, which I owned for a year. Technically a car is made up of many objects, all of them in some stage of degradation (I soon found).
But cars get personified by people, as though they had some spirit of their own. A faulty car is called "temperamental".
They spend all their lives drinking petrol and poisoning things. Now that's temperamental!
Oh look, and here's another car. Ownership of the object can't be the reason for revering it, because this car was only on hire.
We shared a few experiences, driving to new places and seeing new things. It was very reliable and comfy. It's quite curvy...am I getting anywhere?
Another way in which cars differ from people- this one was pretty new and as such was at its peak of performance and usefulness. But people on the other hand... if it was truly like an animal it would be leaking oil everywhere and would need months just learning to turn its wheels.
Next is a model Tommy gun, made of wood and metal for the purposes of a fancy dress party. It seems fairly natural that I got attached to this because of the many hours spent designing and making it- a "labour of love".
Even so, it didn't bother me too much when unknown children borrowed it and returned it to its component parts. This was taken more as a sign of the gun's popularity than as a grievous insult (me being a gangster with a heart).
So maybe it was my work more than the gun itself that I was proud of. In your non-existent face, object!
