After my mother died, more than twenty years ago, we faced the problem of dealing with the contents of her home, since my father had died a year earlier. We live in Israel, and her home was in New Jersey, making it difficult and expensive to bring her belongings to us, even assuming there would be room in our apartment for all of her things.
She had told us about certain items that she wanted to give to some of her nieces and nephews, and we took care of that. But we couldn't deal easily with all the rest, trying to sell everything for what it was worth. So we called in a man who specialized in emptying out people's apartments, paying some amount for some of the things, and guaranteeing that the place would be empty and ready to sell. Obviously we could take what we wanted from the apartment before letting him have his way.
He was a heavyset, blunt Italian-American, super smart, friendly, and persuasive.
After surveying the entire place and making notes to himself about the furniture, decorative objects, paintings, and appliances, he sat and went through my mother's costume jewelry rapidly, saying "this is interesting" whenever he came upon a piece he liked, before offering us a global price for the whole batch.
I was interested in the way he used the word "interesting."
He meant, "I can sell this for a profit," but it wasn't only that. He took my wife and me to his warehouse, and it was clear that he liked his business, loved the objects he had for sale, and enjoyed having them pass through his hands.
"Interesting," after all, is a relative term. Every item of my mother's costume jewelry must have interested her when she bought it, or my father, when he gave it to her, but there was a lot of it she never wore - she had lost interest in it. My wife did not share her taste in jewelry at all, so absolutely nothing in the batch interested her. Some of the pieces were of great interest to me, regardless of their monetary value, because they reminded me of my mother in her prime, and I didn't let the man have them.
"Important" is another relative term. Is anything objectively important? No. Events, people, animals, and objects are only important to the people who find them important. A historian could tell you that the Opium Wars in nineteenth century China were very important, but if someone said, "The history of European colonialism in China is not important to me," the historian can only respond, "Okay, don't take my course or read my book."
Of course, one might also tell the historian, "I acknowledge that your topic is important, but it doesn't interest me right now. I'd rather focus on professional golf, in which I take a great personal interest."
We aren't always interested in what is important.
She had told us about certain items that she wanted to give to some of her nieces and nephews, and we took care of that. But we couldn't deal easily with all the rest, trying to sell everything for what it was worth. So we called in a man who specialized in emptying out people's apartments, paying some amount for some of the things, and guaranteeing that the place would be empty and ready to sell. Obviously we could take what we wanted from the apartment before letting him have his way.
He was a heavyset, blunt Italian-American, super smart, friendly, and persuasive.
After surveying the entire place and making notes to himself about the furniture, decorative objects, paintings, and appliances, he sat and went through my mother's costume jewelry rapidly, saying "this is interesting" whenever he came upon a piece he liked, before offering us a global price for the whole batch.
I was interested in the way he used the word "interesting."
He meant, "I can sell this for a profit," but it wasn't only that. He took my wife and me to his warehouse, and it was clear that he liked his business, loved the objects he had for sale, and enjoyed having them pass through his hands.
"Interesting," after all, is a relative term. Every item of my mother's costume jewelry must have interested her when she bought it, or my father, when he gave it to her, but there was a lot of it she never wore - she had lost interest in it. My wife did not share her taste in jewelry at all, so absolutely nothing in the batch interested her. Some of the pieces were of great interest to me, regardless of their monetary value, because they reminded me of my mother in her prime, and I didn't let the man have them.
"Important" is another relative term. Is anything objectively important? No. Events, people, animals, and objects are only important to the people who find them important. A historian could tell you that the Opium Wars in nineteenth century China were very important, but if someone said, "The history of European colonialism in China is not important to me," the historian can only respond, "Okay, don't take my course or read my book."
Of course, one might also tell the historian, "I acknowledge that your topic is important, but it doesn't interest me right now. I'd rather focus on professional golf, in which I take a great personal interest."
We aren't always interested in what is important.
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