Emotions vested in objects

I've always been fascinated by the idea of objects holding an emotional charge, or otherwise retaining information from the things and people around them. For example, my favorite psychic ability in fiction is psychometry.

I just happened across a pair of websites (both run by the same people) that provide a more direct association between objects and emotions: Ex-Boyfriend Jewelry and Stuff That's Left Behind.

The former is a website where you can sell things (usually jewelry) that your ex-SO/lover/spouse/whatever gave you and that you no longer want; along with a photo of the item and a description of it, you're supposed to write up the item's story wrt your ex-relationship. I think it's kind of a neat idea, but the stories I've seen there so far have mostly been brief and generic--He left me, now I'm selling this necklace he gave me. And it seems like a fair number of them are bitter and angry--He left me, now I'm selling this great watch that I was going to give him, sucks to be him. He left me but he accidentally left his ring behind; he wanted it back, but I'm going to sell it instead, ha ha ha ha ha ha.

So although I find the concept of the site fascinating, reading the listings makes me a little sad.

The other site, though, I find really compelling. Instead of for-sale listings, it's just a blog (that anyone can submit to) showing photos and stories of items left behind at the ends of relationships. The stories are more detailed than on the jewelry-sale site, and the ones I've read are more elegiac and less angry, with lines like "I wanted to throw it out but I couldn't. I smile and stare at it everytime I find it."

There are categories for "Stuff He Left", "Stuff That's Really Ugly" (that's physically/aesthetically ugly objects), "Stuff You Loved", and so on. And the very sad (but compelling) "Stuff That Makes You Cry" category.

And even though I started this entry talking about objects per se, what I really like about the Stuff That's Left Behind site is the stories. Just little slices of life, little bits of what people and relationships are like. Good stuff.

(Yeah, who knows whether everything posted there is true. Doesn't really matter to me, but I'm guessing most of it is.)

The site appears to be fairly new, so there's not a lot posted there yet. Stop by, take a look, and tell them about the stuff that people have left behind in your life.

(I have no affiliation at all with either of these sites; just followed an ad link to one of them and thought they were worth posting about. If you have questions about either site, go to the sites and read their FAQs and then talk to the people who run them.)

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