Status Symbols Tonight when I came home, I was greeted with the news that my daughter had accidentally washed her iPod. She was, understandably, full of regret and sad over her mistake. She is a responsible child, a GATE student who regularly earns A's, helps around the house and even does her own laundry. Which, by the way, is how the iPod got washed. She decided to wash a load of clothes and her iPod was in the pocket of her jeans.

I walked into her room and gathered her up in my arms. She looked at me and asked if I thought it might play again once it dried out. (If anyone knows the answer to that one, please leave me a comment.) I told her I wasn't sure but we could certainly try it over the weekend. Then she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "Well, it's just a thing. It's not like something bad happened to you." My eyes filled with tears because this child has lived through losing her father and it wasn't until tonight that I realized how much that had impacted her. She is human, though, and the iPod was her "status symbol". It was the thing that made her feel cool and part of her crowd.

I guess we all need status symbols on some level. The important thing is that we don't let our status symbols become the most important thing in our lives. As my daughter said, it's just a thing. 

posted by Jade | ¶ 10:10 PM