Things - Posessions and the stuff we accumulate.

[01 VEY]

A few years ago I came to the realization that what I needed was to appreciate that the nice things that my wife and I had worked so very hard for were just that... THINGS. I can recall the first time that this concept truly dawned on me. It was the day my youngest son destroyed my prized possession...my car. I loved that car. This may seem unusual but it was the first car that I had that was new enough to have more than two years of the new car warranty remaining. My wife and I spent weeks poring over countless wheel catalogs to find a set of mags that were a little out of the ordinary, suited the car and were still almost affordable. We customized and fitted new sheepskin seat covers on all the seats and had a sound system fitted that cost more than the previous car we owned.

On the morning in question he had borrowed my car when his Ute had blown a radiator hose as he was going to a new job. As he took the keys from my hand he assured me that he would be careful and that it didn’t matter if he was a little late. The rest is now history.

During my younger years my father had always berated me and anyone else who broke or damaged something that he treasured and I always resented that about him. But at the time of the crash at first I was angered that my son was so careless with my pride and joy but when I saw the extent of damage to the Falcon my first thought was of the possible injuries that my son had sustained. Thankfully he suffered only a whiplash and shock thanks to the airbag and safer design rules governing manufacture of later model cars. It took some time but I came to think and feel that the car had served us well in the eight years we owned it and the last service it gave was possibly to save his life.

This brings me to the moral of this little story... People and the relationships we have with them are by far much more important than the possessions we accumulate. It is a whole lot easier for me now to resolve in my mind that all the THINGS I have are not as important as they had been.

PEOPLE ARE WHAT REALLY MAKE OUR LIVES WORTH LIVING – NOT STUFF

Maintain, service, clean and polish your cars. But most of all love and cherish the people who are close to us. You never know just when it might be that you’ll never get the chance to tell them how much you really care.

Edited February 18, 2013 by 01 VEY