Attachments

This was posted yesterday (9/6/09) on PostSecret, and coincidentally I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I feel like this statement canvases multiple aspects of our lives.


The first being our attachments to people. As someone who is about to leave the comfy bubble I've lived in for the last six years, filled with acquaintances, those I run into and make plans with every so often, people I make an effort to contact more frequently and those I see virtually everyday, I often wonder about how and where the line of trust and confidence falls. Although Facebook and texting make it pretty easy to stay in touch, what if those methods of communication didn't exist. I infrequently think about who I would still be in touch with.

At a camp reunion last weekend I saw a great old friend, with whom I spent many summers growing up. I had gotten in touch with him within the last six months because I ran into his mother, and we've been exchanging emails about our lives. At the reunion he was telling me about his honeymoon, and I was teasing him about getting on facebook so we could get in touch more often, and he said 'Nicky, I have your phone number, and your email, I'd rather not 'know' you through photos'. And there was something very genuine about the way he said it that made me realize that while fb is a great way to exchange information quickly, I don't think it is something that truly augments our relationships.

But back to the attachments.
In addition to human attachments, another thing that has been on my mind, since I've been living like a nomad for the last two months, is material attachments. Do you ever want to just throw everything you own away. I see all of my stuff packed up at my folks house, waiting to be sorted - what will be shipped to San Diego, and what will be sold in a tag sale - and although a lot of it is stuff I've amassed over the last decade, not a lot of it is essential to my well being. Like people, I wonder if I wasn't reminded that these things were in my possession, would I really need them or want to have them.

Last week I was visiting one of those friends I'd never lose touch with in Gainsville Florida, and her boyfriend was telling me about his hike six month hike down the Appalachian trail. I couldn't help but think about all of how all of the attachments that would fall by the wayside when you do something like that. Tempting.