THA | Hamst3r.com

My parents keep scrap books of baby photos, family photos and even pet photos. They had a pair of my baby shoes bronzed. My mom still has that plate I made her one year for Mother’s Day. It has a Stussy logo on it because, really, what are you suppose to draw on a Mother’s Day plate? She also has all the pastels and paintings I made and numerous other arts and crafts type things from my youth.

Stuff like that holds absolutely no meaning to me. They’re unimportant trinkets of stuff that’s old news. They are completely void of value. What do my bronze baby shoes do now? To me, they just collect dust. To my mom though, they evoke memories. They’re irreplaceable keepsakes.

Yeah, I have a few photos up on Myspace and Facebook, but they’re to show off my badass beard and photography skills – nothing more – there is no sentimentality attached to them – they’re just pictures. Sure, I can look at a photo and be like, “Hey, I remember that, that was fun.”, but not having the photo doesn’t crush me.

I read this article recently which contained the following quote:

Tom Bowes, a firefighter for the past eight years, scrambled into the house to salvage old albums with wedding and baby photos amid the flames.

Really? I wouldn’t rush into a burning house to save family photos. I’d run in and grab my computer because it’s actually worth something and I wouldn’t want to have to reinstall everything on a new computer.

when I think about that situation I try and imagine what I’d say at the end of the event, Mad Libs style:

“Phew, well, that was bad, but at least we got the _________…so now we can…________.”

When I put family photos in the first box, nothing fits in the second box, because I couldn’t do anything with them. When I put computer in the first box, the second box could be filled with any number of things.

It’s not just photos either. I feel this way towards a lot of things. For instance, I have this necklace my dad gave me on my 18th birthday. It’s a necklace he wore for probably 30 or 40 years. The first question I asked him was how much he thought it would go for on Ebay.

This lack of emotional attachment extends to people as well as a lot of other things. In my life I’ve met a lot of people that simply cannot throw things away and I just can’t connect with them on that. If I need the space or simply don’t have a use for something anymore, it goes in the trash. 90% of my possessions comfortably fit into my bedroom.

When I do feel an attachment to something, it’s usually because it’s relevant to my current life, such as my love of cheeseburgers. I love a good cheeseburger. There used to be a restaurant down the street called Burger Garden. They made absolutely awesome burgers and shakes. Every time I pass by there, I wish they were still open, cause I’d love to still be able to eat there. I think that’s a different emotion than the one my mom holds towards family photos and bronzed baby shoes though…cause I just want a good burger.