What’s your most valued possession?

The other night, I realized that my book club emails kinda suck. Maybe not for the handful of you following along with the book each month (I salute you), but for the vast majority of you who signed up for this newsletter, you probably don’t want to get quotes and passages from books you’re not reading. I also assume you signed up to hear my perspective. And when I copy and paste passages from other writers, this whole thing becomes a little paint-by-numbers, at which point, I may as well let Chat GPT take the wheel.

But that’s not gonna happen. 

For now, I’m putting the book club on pause. Join Chris Ryan’s if you want a solid one. And here’s a new newsletter format that I’m going to test out. Tell me if you like it. 

It starts with a question. Each newsletter poses a question I’m contemplating. It’s a simple format and one that I’m excited about, because aside from an asteroid blowing a crater through Terra Firma, ideas are the most powerful thing known to our species, and questions are idea generators. 

So. What’s your most valued possession? 

It’s a question often asked, but I’ve never really thought about my answer in earnest. It's funny because when I do, I realize I just sold it. It was my RV, Starflyte. I wasn’t using it nearly enough. My mom wanted it out of her driveway. I put it on Craigslist. Now it’s gone. Gone forever. 

Materialism is fraught. You hippies know that, so I’m tempted to say that stuff doesn’t matter. Disattachment and all that jazz. But that’s not really true. Because some stuff allows us to tap into a new version of ourselves. We shed a layer, gain a perspective, and crawl into a shiny new costume at the disco party of life. 

You see, I bought Starflye during the pandemic. I was in the throes of heartbreak. I didn’t have a job. I had just turned 30. Starflyte simultaneously offered freedom, and it confined me in the best way possible. I had a bed, a table, and a tea kettle that looked like the genie bottle in Aladdin. No TV. Over the next two years, I did more reading and writing than the previous three decades combined. I cooked Amy’s canned lentil soup. I meditated. I read When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodren… like ya do. 

Starflyte wasn’t my most valued possession because of what it gave me, which was a lot, but rather because of who it gave me. Possessions are reflections of us, but like bending mirrors, the best ones show us something new. 

So. Think about it this week. Comment below. What’s your most valued possession? 

Love,

Kyle