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What is the value of time? What is the value of memories? When you lose a train and buy another ticket, the not planned extra cost, also has within the value of our time (and our mistakes, in this case). The objects we surround ourselves with, the ones we like, we buy, we use, we see them around for years and load them with our memories and "moments".
Japanese tradition has given a name to the objects that have accompanied us through our life, tsukumogami, "the spirits of things", which is born from any kind of object over 100 years old. The appearance of the spirit of the object is said to be good or bad depending on how it was drawn (and the end we made him do.) This idea is a part of Harikuyou, a ritual dedicated to sewing with needles, takes place every year on February 8 in different temples and shrines, where you give thanks for their work. Tradition has it that Japanese seamstresses, on this day dedicated to the goddess protecting the rice fields, rested from daily sewing work and dedicated it to showing gratitude to the old needles towers and oxidised, inserting them in tofu cakes.
The objects we live in are what define us, just like we do with the clothes we wear. We rarely spend money on "something we just like", we always need to justify ourselves by saying we need it, and we never say "I want to buy it because it's beautiful". Often people postpone the purchase for that light point, or that painting that goes on that wall or armchair to put in that corner, and often you find yourself having that wall or that corner empty for years. Don't get me wrong, I understand it's not a vital expense, but why do we prefer to buy an extra piece of clothing rather than the armchair that has been waiting for you for years? We are too attached to the mania of appearance and often forget to do things just for ourselves, in an almost selfish act by decorating our house, arranging it according to our taste, corner by corner, month by month. And if it has managed to convince you, why spend on an object produced in bulk, that found in any other house where you go, rather than not looking for a particular object, that speaks of you and your taste, that you have found in the midst of a thousand others all different and unique, just as you are, and as is your home. And who knows, maybe you find a piece that has reached its 100th birthday and has its tsukumogami.
