Radiolab produced an interesting episode on things.
The first half of the program explores how people come to attach value to objects which otherwise have little extrinsic market worth. We can form sentimental bonds with things for several reasons: they may remind us of a special event, a place, a person, an accomplishment, a failure, a bygone era in our lives, and so forth.
The Radiolab segment shares a story of a guy who kept a candy sugar egg for over 40 years. Initially, this seems like an odd item for someone to hold for most of his life. But as you hear the interview, you come to appreciate what the egg represented to him.
This characteristic (forming an emotional bond with things) is one of the traits that make us unique. Some people do so relatively easily (they like to keep things), while others tend to discard unnecessary stuff as “clutter.”
I’m not a hoarder, but sometimes I lean toward the former camp. For the past month I’ve kept an otherwise worthless trinket merely because of who gave it to me. It’s not even a person I know well, but I got caught up in the moment. Speculative sentimentalism, if you will.
I don’t think I’ll keep the trinket for 40 years, like the guy with the sugar egg. But for now, I won’t throw it away. It’s the tangible form of an idea that’s worth more (to me) than the value of the item itself.