Deck of Cards

Good afternoon everyone! Happy Monday! I don't mind Monday's as much this semester as I used to. I only have like 45 minutes to blog today, so bear with me. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be too short.

For those of you who aren't keeping count on their own, we have 86 days until our departure for Morocco! I'm starting to get more and more excited for it. I bought a deck of cards at the corner store last week. Whenever I have a big trip I always select a deck of cards that pleases me. Then those cards serve to entertain me when I have downtime until I leave on the vacation. Then on the long million hour flights I use the deck of cards again for entertainment. They serve as like a totem if you will, which harness the energy of the vacation. Then the cards go into my bedroom in Louisville, on the top shelf with the rest of my vacation totems. It's what I do, I dub certain random objects (wings, deck of cards, shot glass, nail clippers, etc.) as little trinkets to remind me of something happy. In fact a lot of people do this, and it's called essentialism.

I used to not understand why I got so much enjoyment out of revering certain objects. It basically comes from an unknown logic flaw in our minds as we develop. Essentialism is MUCH more prevalent in children, but some people hold on to the habit. Under this way of thinking, a deck of cards is not just a stack of 52 cardboard or plastic sheets; within the completely unique arrangement of the atoms and quarks of that deck of cards is a stored identity that makes that deck different from any other decks. That identity is changed by the interactions the object has with the environment.

This may seem a bit complex for the thinking of a 5 year old, but it makes sense. It is the inherent reason that children love and care for their own stuffed animal; but when given an identical stuffed animal, the kid doesn't give a shit because it's not his stuffed animal. Even if the two stuffed bears are exactly the same, the kid knows that the new bear hasn't been altered by it's environment in the same way as the original. You could say the new bear hasn't been through the same experiences.

So as a result, people like me attribute objects to experiences. Collectors do the same thing when they buy a signed souvenir. Like a shamanistic totem, our mind makes sense out of the arbitrary and infinitesimal atomic arrangement changes and turn it into meaning. In my case this is a memory. For a child it's companionship. For the collector it could be a piece of the talent of whoever signed his souvenir.

Using my deck of cards example, I will take that deck of Aviator brand cards to Spain and Morocco with me. I will open up the package in the Miami terminal and let's say three cards fall to the floor. Before I can pick it up; bacteria has jumped onto my cards, organic material like dust has attached itself to pieces of the plastic coating, and somewhere on the three cards that fell will be a very very very small dent. For the rest of the deck's existence, effects from me dropping the cards will always remain. And because I dropped the cards in the Miami airport, in my mind the deck of cards will always contain a piece of my favorite place. Even if that is a dent that's 10^-15m deep.

Fast forward to when I'm in Morocco. Let's say in Rabat Karen and I decide to go to a cafe and play poker. While playing, a gust of wind blows sand into my eyes causing me to take a few moments to rub my eyes and tear up bit. Well those dust and shell particles also blew the deck of cards. The particles rubbed against the cards causing friction, and several of the molecules on the edge of the cards to shear off. Once again, for the rest of the deck's existence it will be altered. And even though the mass of the cards has changed to an extremely minute degree, they will always contain the remnants of Africa.

So then when I get back home to Louisville and put the cards back up in their hiding spot on the top shelf, the deck will not be altered by the environment much. The identity of the cards will always be the same as the identity of the cards I took to Africa with me, and that can be proven by the extremely small structural changes. But in my mind, it will be like storing part of the Miami airport, part of the Atlas Mountains, and part of wherever else the cards go. Just like magic.

So now on my top shelf I have...
-About 20 airline safety cards, each storing a piece of Boeing, Airbus, Delta, O'hare, etc.
-2 decks of cards, both storing pieces of cruise ships.
-A folder of bible stories, storing strong-hearted families of Honduras, dirt from the rainforest, and probably salmonella
-And a lot of other stuff but I'm running out of time and have to class.

Sorry if that was boring! I wish I could expand that list more cuz I totally got wrapped up in thinking about that! Anyway I have to go to class, until next time...