Why is it that we call our stuff “belongings”?
My cellphone is a Sprint HTC. It’s a “smart phone,” I guess, but it’s not an iPhone. This belonging does not allow me to belong in the Apple community–something I am aware of, but not troubled by.
Although now that I’m amplifying the idea, I am troubled by it. I’m troubled by the notion that an object makes me mindful of a way in which I don’t belong. This item–this “belonging”–is more of a not-belonging. Why should a thing tell me something about where I fit in humanity? Recognizing that I don’t belong there doesn’t bother me, but it bothers me that it bothers many other people, including a lot of my clients.
To measure your belongingness by your possessions: What a profound burden.
Wait … possessions. We also call our stuff “possessions.” My cellphone is a possession, but in which way? Do I possess it, or does it possess me? A good question to ask myself on this very day that Sprint becomes an iPhone carrier and I could simply click, upgrade, and become an Apple person….
What is the nature of your belonging as expressed by your belongings? In which direction does the possession exist between you and them? Does the need for belonging(s) possess you?
And is all of this as you want it to be?
