DAY SIX
I have started to place my objects into different categories. These categories are based on monetary value, personal value, convenience value, replaceability value.
For example, my iPhone 5c. It is two years old, does not work very well, and is probably worth much less than I bought it for. It holds are large amount of personal value to me not because of the iPhone itself but because of what is on the iPhone — pictures, notes, messages I want to save, a Google Maps app that has kept me from not dying several times. However, if I were to lose this iPhone or if it were to break, the next day I could go into an Apple store or on Amazon and buy a new one. It would cost me more money than I would like to spend, but it is still replaceable. I have backed up my photos on my computer, so the loss of my iPhone would be more of an inconvenience than it would be a personal loss. I’m not going to throw my phone out the window, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if somebody else did.
Monetary value: 6/10. Personal value: 3/10/ Convenience value: 10/10. Replaceability value: 8/10.
Another example, my ring that I found for ten euros at a thrift store in the middle of a neighborhood on the outskirts of Stockholm last February. It is brass, fits perfectly around my middle finger, but not my index or my ring finger. It has a stamped engraving in typed font that reads: one enemy is too much one thousand friends not enough. If my hand is on the railing of the metro, sometimes I will see a stranger tilt their head slightly to try to read what it says, and I love that. Other times friends will notice my ring has writing on it, and they take my hand to see what it says. I love that too. The ring says that one thousand friends are not enough, but if somebody were to take this ring and throw it out the window, I may have nine hundred and ninety-nine.
Monetary value: 1/10. Personal value: 10/10. Convenience value: 1/10. Replaceability value: 10/10.
