The other day, I was answering a set of questions for a blog entry, one of those weird blog meme things, when I came upon a seemingly simple question that ended up sparking a whole chain of thought. The question was merely “what are your favourite shoes?”. My immediate reaction was that while I may be quite content with the shoes I have, I don’t have “favourite” shoes, because I try not to have favourite material things — they are inevitably impermanent and not worth becoming attached to.
Right after I think this though, I mentally rebut that, while I may be able to adopt an attitude of detachment for things like clothing, I am pretty obsessive about my gadgets: I use my MacBook constantly and just bought a iPod Touch, the (near-constant) use of which I am very much enjoying. Following that train of thought a little further however, I realized that it’s not the device itself I care about, it’s the information it contains and the processing that the devices facilitate: The physical devices themselves are trivially replaceable.
The nub of it: One should avoid becoming too attached to material things; it’s not the device, it’s the process it enables.
A Brief Aside on Permanence
I remember, as a child, when I’d get a new possession that I really liked, I’d completely fall in love with it. I’d want to always have it with me, I’d make up elaborate narrative for it, et cetera. But then the problem arises: I become so enraptured with this new thing that I make it part of my identity. Now, what happens when it breaks, or is lost, as all inevitably happens to all physical things?
This is why I decided to try to avoid having favourite physical goods, and try to instead put that value on skills that I have, things that I can have forever.
