Sentimentality

It’s a rare young person
who truly understands
sentimentality,
for whom an object
may hold sentimental value
far in excess of
its monetary worth.

For sentiment to take hold
so strongly, a person must
experience deep loss,
such as death of a parent,
spouse, sibling, or child…
loss of someone dearly loved,
loss that hurts to the soul.

Only then does that basket
made by a father’s strong hands,
that picture painted lovingly
through a mother’s eyes,
that sweater clumsily knitted
by sister, or a child’s beloved,
favorite teddy bear
take on immeasurable value,
become something personal
to remember them by,
something to warm the heart.

Only then does an object
of meager monetary worth
that was owned and loved
by the one now lost
mean the world
to the one left behind…
because of the connection felt,
of the ability to touch what they
once touched, to share a moment
they once shared, to recall them
with love in the heart and tears
welling up in the eyes.

This object, whatever it might be,
represents a little bit of them
still available, a way to hold them
close a little longer, to have them still.
This link is worth much more
than mere money. This is priceless,
making the plainest of items the
most treasured thing one possesses.