Marian and I are extremely fortunate in that we seem to have everything we want in life. But this causes certain difficulties when times come in which people traditionally trade presents. Therefore we seem to have reverted to less serious gifts.
Marian has two dressing modes. One is levis and work shirt for her gardener and home life with me. The other is very tasteful and sometimes striking wear for public appearances. For her last birthday I found a prize in the window of the Stanford bookstore. I initially didn’t know what it was. I finally figured out it was a bright red blanket with sleeves, all covered with various Stanfordish images. It was so awful I instantly bought it for her. It accomplished its purpose, which was to cause her to laugh a lot and give me a bad time about how men could never properly buy clothes for women.
But then time passed. She reads a lot in bed, and found that it was very easy to throw the thing over her and put her arms through the sleeves to hold her book/pad. More time passed. She became very fond of it, and defended it strongly whenever I gave her a hard time about it. And now, you know how little kids have their “blankey” (often a raggy remnant of something that made them warm and comfortable (and still does))? Marian has made the awful sleeved blanket into an adult blankey. Photo proof below.
When I gave it to her I think we would have both agreed it was a product of exceptionally low quality. But now? I would certainly hate to try to take it away from her.
But this is not unique. The photo below shows my “every day” shoes. I occasionally get comments like “those shoes are old and coming apart. My retort is “but they are my old shoes. I recently noticed a lady walking an old and beat up dog and staring at my shoes as I passed her. I hoped that she would say “why don’t you get some new shoes?” Unfortunately she didn’t, because I would have said “why don’t you get a new dog”
It is perhaps unfortunate these days that we live in a society where everything is disposable, and people do not keep products as long as they once did, because I think one grows to love products over time, assuming they serve one well. I had my first car many years, and although it was not a very good car, I wish I still had it. As I said in a previous post, I am restoring my father/son’s 1966 Chevrolet pickup, and even though my 2011 Toyota pickup is technically a much finer machine, I am eager to revert to the 1966. Although I suppose my new OSX version 10.10 is a better operating system than the OSX version 10.6.8, I liked the old one better. It was an old friend, and we interacted well. I suggest that interaction time effects one’s perception of product quality, for better or worse. If a product serves you well, it eventually becomes a blankey.
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