/ Lila

Lila, Destroyer of Earphones

Wherein I ponder the destruction of my earphones.

365-345_Pensive Lila

Lila is staying with me until I move to Pittsburgh. I am happy to watch her and adore the dickens out of her, but this morning, as I was getting ready for work and grabbed my Etymotic hf2 earphones to untangle them Lila took one playful swipe and cut right through the plastic sheath and through the wires and destroyed a $140 investment in the blink of an eye. I am, to be honest, still upset about this because I have very few nice things in my life. My computer, iPhone, iPod, headphones, Snowball Mic, and my Etymotics are among the only possessions that I truly care about (other than books and music), and that are central to my life. Don’t get me wrong, I have more than most people on this planet, but in comparison to many Americans, I have very little. But what I have means a lot to me. Materialism is, in many ways, an under-valuation of the products and items in out lives rather than an over-valuation. If you invest money and mindfulness into an object, take the time to appreciate it, you are less likely to throw things away, or replace them simply because a newer, shinier thing was released.

So, yes, I feel a bit shallow for being really upset over the loss of my earphones, and realize that this is an entirely 1st world and privileged problem to have, and yes I know that I can get by in the foreseeable future with crappy earphones and that it wouldn’t hurt me to take more walks without being encapsulated by my music and cut off from the world around me, but I’m still sad at the loss and frustrated that I won’t be able to replace them for a while.1

Have you ever had something break that your objective mind said “it’s just a thing,” but your emotional response was genuine sadness?

On this day..

  1. The thought of having to take the bus when I move to Pittsburgh without good, sound isolating earphones however, makes me uncomfortable just thinking about it, so I may try to find a replacement pair on sale once I start school. [↩]