BOOKS & THINGS

why is it that when i see you sitting there with your phone in hand - going down the rabbit hole - i find it so annoying but when, instead, you have a book in your hands, equally immersed, i think you are doing something worthwhile. you could just as well have been reading a book on your phone. i know this because i have a bookworm of a friend who even reads standing in Qs

i think what i want to talk about here is the inability to transcend the attachment to things - here illustrated by my attachment to books. i have a dear friend from school who, upon buying ,or even just considering buying a book, will open it up wide, bury her face in it and breath in deeply. a habit that i find so endearing and I've adopted it in a slightly less enthusiastic way. i interpret this as a way of experiencing your book on a sensory level, well above valuing it for its content alone. then i have another friend who doesn't use bookmarks - you know what she does, don't you- she folds over the corner to keep her place. and when i expressed my disgust she was sort of equally disgusted at my point of view - its only a book - its the contents that matter. . .

not-able-to-transcend-objects

you see i tried a kindle - and i can totally see how it is a clever, useful invention. and i try to be a person who is not unduly materialistic.  but i make a distinction between being materialistic and being sentimental and i think this is perhaps where i get at the heart of my attachment to books: i can have a thousand books on my kindle or phone and not a single one of them is going to remind me of you. not one of those virtual books is going to make me feel connected to you, with the knowledge that you took the time to ask around for recommendations, that you wrote a note in the inside cover, imbuing it with history. not one of those virtual books will leave me with the feeling that im holding something you once held, that im now reading the very same words that you yourself have also read. and when i pass it on, i will say ,so and so got me this for my birthday, its really good, enjoy it ( secretly wanting to say "please dont fold the corners" but resisting the urge because i dont want to seem uptight)

i will then totally forget who i lent it too and be surprised and overjoyed when it makes it's way back to me one day

it is with this same mindset that i create things 

when i sit down at my bench i magically convert time and imagination into a concrete object, and what is more valuable than time. and when im doing it for you, every single cut, every single file-mark or beat of the hammer is done with you in mind, to create a thing that is utterly yours 

let me state clearly: i dont think beiing attached to objects is  negative

and im not talking about beiing materialistic. im talking about being attached to objects because they remind you of personal connections. because they fill your house with friends and family even at times when we dont see one another for months - or years. and serve as reminders, when im using my Catherine-spoons and transported back to the time we spent together, to take out the time to write her an email just to say im thinking of you