Own the idea, not the object
Walking to work, there’s a store display that always catches my eye – a well-lit shelf filled with diminutive crystalline animals and plants. They rotate the display every couple of days, and they’re always very sparkly and attention-grabbing.
I’m not interested in owning crystal figurines, but I always appreciate the craftsmanship and the ethereal beauty that some of them have.
Today when I walked past, there was a tiny family of crystalline tigers, all the features rendered perfectly to the smallest detail. I slowed for a second for an extended stare before passing on in the street. For half a second, I thought “I wonder how much those would cost…?” before I remembered that I’m not really a figurine sort of person. I just like tigers.
It reminded me of the problem I sometimes have, that when I see something beautiful, I want to own it. I want to possess concepts and make them a part of my life by placing them in my house, as if materialising my attitudes make them more real. Today, though, I finally thought of a good argument for this urge, that isn’t “No, you don’t really want to buy that, if there’s one thing you don’t need it is More StuffTM”.
While I’m not seriously considering buying the tigers, if I did, I know how I could satisfy the urge to spend money on them – by donating money towards a Save the Sumatran Tigers fund, or something similar. If I like tigers, isn’t it better to contribute to their continued survival rather than buying a sparkly figure of one?
That’s an easier call to make – some other purchases might be more difficult to disentangle the value I’m associating with the purchase. I’m going to start thinking about all my purchasing decisions like this from now on, though – am I buying the thing or the idea? If it’s the idea, how can I spend this money in a way that means something rather than just scoring me a representation to maintain?
For me, my life is most satisfying when I feel I am making a positive difference to the world by my actions, and when I’m learning something new. Neither of those things require me owning very much at all, which means other than rent, bills, food and health I can use what I earn to further these interests without giving me more things to clean or maintain. I approve of this.
The only thing I really want to own is a bit of land with a house on, and that’s only because I want to modify my house in certain ways and maintain it as I see fit. I’d also like to adopt more pets from animal shelters, which is difficult to do when renting. Otherwise, owning a house wouldn’t be of interest to me either.
The only thing I really want to leave behind when I go is words.
