When Things Are More Than Things
Since 2019, I have had the personal luxury of being part of a monthly spirituality group. Mind you, this group is NOT about religion. It is about how each of us defines, uses, and experiences our own definition of spirituality.
This past month, one of our group members shared his own kind of spiritual experience of sailing upon the ocean and the peaceful intimacy that being enveloped by Mother Nature and buoyed by a wooden boat that he owns. As he spoke, you knew his boat was his connection to a deeply personal place. As he spoke his eyes became brighter, his smile wider and his body came more alive. It was clear to me that he actually loved his boat; perhaps as much as – or maybe more than - he has loved another person. And this got me thinking.
What does it mean to love a “thing” like my friend loves his boat? “Things,” as we call them, don’t do justice to the role some of these “things” play in our lives. Chances are each of us is surrounded by “things” that are from our past and present to which we are emotionally attached. A photograph of our firstborn or our younger self. How many of us have grandmom’s pot that made thousands of hearty meals for generations of family? A hat that used to be Dad’s. A piece of jewelry from Mom. A dog-eared yearbook, wedding ring, or that dusty souvenir on the shelf from a trip long ago. All of these “things” are clearly more than things to those of us who have had them woven into our lives.
For me, my lifelong relationship with my camera has provided endless moments of intimacy with the entire world while trying to capture images of wild lion cubs frolicking, wading in water to capture the opening of water lilies, laying on my stomach in the Egyptian desert shooting the pyramids or holding my breath to capture an ocean moonrise with a 2-minute time-exposure on a cool autumn night. For over 50 years the “thing” called a camera has been one of my longest, most dependable, and constant companions.
As a piano technician, the years I repaired and restored old, tired, and broken pianos (a thing) and gave them new life and a renewed voice, instilled in me that they are a marvelous combination of wood, metal, and ivory that, with the stimulation of fingers, feet, and talent come alive and their spirit gets released. In those needy pianos, I felt their desire to make music again, and surgeon-like, I held their exposed pieces in my hands and lovingly put them back together again. These revived and revitalized pianos are friends in my heart forever. Now when I watch a pianist, I am watching a duet. A pianist and a “thing” called a piano. And for me, they are both alive.
My brother is a highly skilled mechanical engineer. He has always had a deep love for and appreciation of all “things” mechanical. He particularly loves cars and has owned and taken apart scores of them. He even built one from scratch. As an employee at the oldest Naval shipyard in the United States, he spent 30 years building, taking apart, and repairing nuclear submarines. A very BIG “thing.” A long time ago I remember he said to me, “All machines have souls.” I think now I have come to understand this.
There is a beautiful song written and sung by one of the finest folk singers to ever live, Gordon Bok who hails from the coast of Maine. He wrote a song called “Sabin the Woodfitter,” which is an intimate love song to his boat. While technically, his boat is a “thing.” The song removes any doubt that his boat is anything but a “thing.” His song reminds us that attachment to a “thing” like his meticulously and lovingly handcrafted boat, is a form of relationship that can be as strong a bond as any human one.
While no “thing” relationship can be the same as a human relationship, Gordon Bok sings to us that some “things” like the boat in his song, can be a certain and strong connection to our core that can feed, buoy, and anchor our lifetime.
So, what is a “thing” that you hold dearly? Perhaps you can share your “thing” with someone else and in so doing, make the world that much closer.
If you would like to listen to Gordon Bok’s exquisite song, here is the link.
