What is it about a certain thing that makes us want more? It makes sense that we want to categorize things, like solving a puzzle by snapping the pieces into place, we know what we need to go and find based on the items that surround the missing piece. But most of us want to create combinations of things that are pleasing. Either by shape, size, color, texture, sound, usefulness – what have you.
Patterns can also tell us when something goes wrong and help us to figure out how to set it right again. When one customer tells a company that they are having a problem with a product, it might be assumed that it was an anomaly but when the same complaint comes up again and again then the company better get busy on that pattern.
I used to watch my mom sew clothes when I was little. There was a pattern to her whole effort; deciding what was going to be made, going to the fabric store to pick out all the needed items – which included the pattern to make the piece of clothing – preparing and cutting and then finally sewing. Some of the pattern pieces made sense right away – you could see it was going to be a sleeve or other recognizable part. But some of the pattern pieces looked quite random, they only made sense when combined with other pieces.
Collections can be useful or informative, say tools, or aesthetically pleasing. My dad had quite a few tools, some had been his father’s before him. The hand tools were made to last, worn smooth by years of use. My grandfather’s power tools were a bit scary since they were produced long before safety features had come into being. Belts and other moving parts were all open and ready to snag a finger or worse, not hidden behind plates and covers as they are now.
I think that I am in the majority in finding comfort in my collections and something soothing in repetition.
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Tagged: Comfort zone, Creativity, Energy, Life, Philosophy, Process, Purpose, Reflection, Self expression
BAReed Writing, Business Writing 
I think you’re right, there is comfort in collecting things that we like. I have some of my father’s tools and a couple of his father’s. Even the hand tools are a little scary sometimes when you learn how they were used. Still, it’s a connection. I think I wrote about that once or twice 🙂
I have a thing for teapots. Now, I only just learned to like tea in the past couple of years – but I have collected teapots and other things with spouts for most of my adult life. I think it was the form originally and now it is also about the soothing ritual. The same with tools, there is something about how that tool starts to feel in your hand and knowing that you can use it to make a thing.