Things.

Last month Jen's condo was broken into twice. Well ... to be more accurate, her condo was broken into once and her garage was broken into once. From the condo her sister's laptop was taken, and from the garage, Jen's iPod, iPod cable, my bike, and my tools. It's a strange feeling to know someone has gone into your private places and taken your things. And while these things may hold a strong sentimental value to you, they hold nothing but a monetary value to that person that has taken them. But to be honest, the most concerning thing for me was not that these things had been taken, rather it was that I no longer felt that Jen and her sister were safe in their condo, and that's much worse than worrying about things.

See, the things that were taken meant a lot to all of us. Erica's laptop was a key source to her communicating with friends, studying, and holding memories ... ton's of pictures and music and other things gone ... forever. I gave Jen her iPod for Christmas two years ago, I got the back engraved with something corny that I will withhold from here so I can retain the tough-guy image that I pretend people have of me. I'm sure Jen has ton's a memories of things she has done, or places she has been while listening to music on that iPod, but now it also is gone ... forever. I'm sure I have some great memories of fixing stuff with those tools, but honestly I just felt more manly knowing I had a bunch of tools in my girlfriends garage. And the bike ... Jen got me this sweet beach cruiser for my birthday last year, and we have some great memories of things we did with our bikes. Apart from the many times we took them down to Huntington and rode up and down the beach and over on Main Street I have one particular memory that was pretty awesome. We drove down to the Newport Beach Brewing Company with our bikes in the bed of Jen's truck ... while I refused to admit it originally, the bed on her truck is longer than mine and the bikes did fit better in there, but anyway. We had probably one of the most mediocre lunches ever at NBBC and then we left the truck there and rode our bikes to the beach. We cruised down for a little bit, away from the more popular areas until we reached a spot that was a little more low key. We parked our bikes in front of a little restaurant and walked down to the shore. We played in the water for a bit, laid on the beach for a while and then walked back to our bikes. I distinctly remember not having anything dry to wear and have to ride the bike back a couple of miles still wet and eventually having to drive back to her place still wet. Now while that story would never make it as a television episode or anything, I remember us having a great time ... and it will be a memory that I never forget. Which brings me to my point.

See, when someone broke in a stole our stuff, all they got was stuff. And while it was easy at first to be bummed that someone that had no respect for the sentimental value of these items was now in possession of them, the truth is that the memories still exist, and those can't be taken ... (Unless someone pulls some crazy "Inception" junk on me, but I don't think that's gonna happen ... or maybe it is now, where is my totem? Sorry.) But the more that I thought of the connection between the things and the meaning behind the things the more I realized that now that these things were gone, in some way the meaning behind those things now meant more. Yah, I think I even lost myself on that last sentence. See, when I take a feeling, an emotion and try to turn it into something tangible by saying "That bike represents the good times we had at the beach and riding through the park", in a way I'm diminishing the true value of those good times. Cause in reality, we represent the good times we had at the beach and riding through the park. The bikes were just the vessels, but we were the ones that were actually experiencing it, we were the ones that were actually making the experience valuable. Not the bikes.

I was really bummed about my bike being gone, I was even more bummed about the iPod I got Jen being gone ... but the fact is that even though they're gone, what they stood for still exists. I mean, if someone took your favorite Bible, would it rock your faith? I hope not. If someone stole your wedding rings, would your marriage end? No way. But I feel like somehow, we put a lot of emphasis on these material things and forget about the true meaning behind them, and I'm honestly somewhat thankful that these things were taken ... because it reminded me of the true value of the meaning, and the experiences ... apart from the things.

But that doesn't mean I wouldn't punch the person that did this right in the nose if I ever met them ... You know, just to thank them.