Toys and Things

I saw a bumper sticker recently that read “He who dies with the most toys wins” and it reminded me of the experience of cleaning out my parent’s house after they both died.

My father was a tinkerer and had built a nice wooden work bench in the basement where he had numerous hand tools, all neatly displayed and organized. Most were related to his hobby of rock hounding and jewelery making. They were an important part of his life and packing up the ones that neither my brother nor I wanted was a surrealistic experience. One day they were important and valuable and the next day…they were just stuff.

The very things that we find so important and necessary in our lives suddenly lose their meaning when the owner dies. It isn’t the object, the toy, that has value. It’s the experience of using it that has value.