compassion/pity for inanimate objects?

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about a year ago i moved twice and misplaced one of my favorite blankets, it was brown, and i kept looking for it but couldnt find it, so i found a new blanket, it is green, but then, yesterday, my dad found the brown blanket, i was so happy but then, today, i saw the green blanket on the floor, i felt so bad, i dont know what to do now, i kept thinking how betrayed the green blanket must feel and how happy the brown blanket feels, does anyone else do this?

are you Linus from charlie brown?

Sometimes when I brush my cat and I have to throw his old hair away I feel bad for it. I always say goodbye to it and thanks for taking care of Pancho and keeping him so soft to cuddle up to.

Also when people park their bikes outside and then never use them again and I see the bike first bend a little, then bend some more, then someone steals a wheel and the bike is out there all alone looking like it's on it's knees, and eventually it goes from collapse to a rusty ruined heap. It looks like the skeleton of a prisoner who was chained to dungeon wall and forgotten about - I hate that and feel sorry for the good bike who was only trying to do his job,

I also think rocks might be a life form, as they are part of the earth itself.

Yes. I've felt compassion and pity for inanimate objects many times before.

Around 3yo I had a red ribbon on vacation. I curled and unfurled it over and over again. One day on the beach, my family was filming, I imagine I got nervous and lost grip of it, and it flew into the ocean. I cried the rest of the trip, according to my mom.

When I was young we had a really comfortable couch.
I remember cuddling with my mother on that couch for years and years of my childhod.

One day, I was sick (the flu, I think) and home from school and my mom, without telling me decided that the couch needed to be replaced (it was kind of old and such, but I still found it comfortable) and suddenly there was a new couch in the living room and they were going to throw away the old couch.

I was almost inconsolable, I cried and cried and cried until she agreed not to throw it away right away and to just keep it another room of the house which we didn't really use.

I'm choking back tears right now just thinking about it.
I loved that couch, and I think in some ways I still do.

I can't even unpack my stuff I get so sentimental and overwhelmed with memories and start crying.

Just yesterday I had to return a book to the library, and I felt super bad about it because I'd found said book in the basement area where hardly anyone goes, and it felt sad to have to return it to a dusty old shelf where no one will notice it. Before I slid it in the return slot I promised I'd come and visit. Writing it now makes me feel kind of insane, but I meant what I said, and I probably will go back to visit. I wonder why we get so attached to inanimate objects?

Yes, as a child I used to feel bad for inanimate objects, like a broken traffic light. I knew it was irrational even back then but that didn't make it easier to deal with. I would say this had something to do with how we tend to not have many people who want our caring, concern, etc so we project it onto inanimate objects.

I remember as a very small kid, about age 5 or 6, feeling intense sadness at throwing away a candy wrapper and realizing that I'd never see it again--it was gone forever. I think it was more grasping the idea of "never" and "forever", though.

no

Yes I did.

When I was a little kid, I was holding my sock out the car window because I liked seeing it fly in the wind and then the wind went so hard it slipped out of my hand and I cried so much for the sock, I also cried because whenever I saw the matching sock, it didn't have its other pair. Several years went by and I found the lonesome sock in my drawer and I cried over the missing pair that flew out the window. I never told anyone that until I became an adult and found out that a lot of aspies feel this way over inanimate objects. My psychologist also said that it's common for aspies to feel emotions over past experiences in the same way it felt when we were living it the first time (hope that makes sense).

Just until a few years ago I also use to say "sorry" whenever I'd bump into a table or chair or drop a pen or pencil, etc. After being embarrassed about doing that, I fought the urge to say sorry and now I naturally don't do it anymore.

Yep. Still do. I have so many animal shaped things that get special treatment in my aprtment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBqhIVyfsRg


On rare occasion, yes. I then make myself feel bad for a person involved in some aspect of it though. Like if the book in the library example had been me, I'd change it such that I'd feel bad for the author whose book was stuck in the basement.

everything has feelings; they all need to be loved.

Yes, I do. But it's a tendency I consciously combat. If I care too much about things, I start collecting junk and my place becomes cluttered. As a child I might feel sorry for a rock on the road and take it home to put in my collection even though I already had fifty pieces of limestone. That can get really problematic; that way lies hoarding. And since I can't think well in a cluttered environment, I know better than to let myself go that way. So I throw away everything I don't use. Only things with major, major sentimental value get kept--my first scientific poster, for example. Things I make are given away if I don't use them. I have to override my instincts when it comes to inanimate objects because I know they do not have feelings and that it is much more important for me to have a clean and uncluttered living space.

I think I'd interpret this question differently. In my case, I have a very strong aversion to any kind of wastefulness or non-appreciation of material things. In other words, I feel terrible if I forgot that I have a basket of raspberries in the fridge for a couple days, and they have to be thrown out due to mold. And I feel guilty if I buy something (or get as a gift), and anything happens to it by accident or just by time & normal wear. I keep the boxes and packing materials from everything; even big things like TVs or appliances. It feels like if I threw that stuff out, I'd be scoffing the fact that I was lucky enough to have a brand-new (whatever item).

I do feel bad when I replace something, like to get a new car, or new pair of shoes, etc., and I have the urge to keep using the old one in order not to just abandon it or forget that it gave me good service for a long time. In fact, I bought a new truck in July of last year, and still have the old one and won't sell it for fear that the next owner might not take care of it.

So in a way, I know the feeling of "feeling bad for inanimate objects". But to be clear, it about waste or disappreciation; not emotions within the inanimate object.

Charles