I'm about to claim something, and I'm going to ask all of you to reserve your laughter and disbelieving stares until the end of the lecture, please. I know this is going to be hard to stomach coming from a rock star but I'm going to pitch it past you anyway: I'm really not that materialistic.
No, seriously.
I don't mean that to mean I don't have any material things or that I don't like buying them because that is of course a load of crap. I have a lot of material things. I do mean a lot. I won't deny that I buy a lot of crap probably even when it's unnecessary and I buy it when I feel like it for no other reason THAN I feel like it. But--and maybe this makes me deluded or means I'm rationalizing it all, but I feel like because I'm not really attached to those material things, I'm not very materialistic in general.
Things come and go into and out of my life. I want something, I buy it. I need something, I buy it. But with very few exceptions, if someone else wants it or needs it more than I do, I'll give it away just as easily. Some people say that makes me an asshole and some people says that makes me altruistic. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in between, like is almost always the case with things like this. I don't give things away because I want people to like me. I give things away because people need them more than I do. I don't like seeing people in pain or hurting. At least, I don't like seeing people who don't deserve shit having shit piled on them, I suppose if I am being frank I will admit that I have a heavy propensity for Schadenfreude and no problem with seeing people who've brought it on themselves get their just rewards. But most people who are wanting for something didn't really do anything to serve being in the place of wanting. Just like I am a rock star as much by sheer dumb luck and opportunity as I am because of talent and hard work, most people like the hobos who live outside my home are hobos because life shat on them and not because they were lazy or bad people. A lot of them are veterans, it turns out, who go overseas to serve their country and get slapped in the face with so much trauma that they can't function as people in society and then they fall through the cracks when they get home. That doesn't seem fair to me at all but that's probably a rant for another day.
So in the interest of the Haves taking care of the Have Nots, I try to help out. I buy gift certificates, I buy them food, I've even been known to let them crash in my beach room for a day or two while they try to get back on their feet. I try to help where I can, but of course there's probably a lot more I could be doing so I don't think of myself as a saint or anything. And I guess that wasn't really the point of this question anyway, now that I've gone down the path of trying to justify to someone or the other why I'm not really materialistic when I live in a multi-million dollar home on the Pacific Ocean and watch people dig through trashcans for scraps from In'n'Out from my balcony almost every night. There's always one guy who goes through looking for bottles to turn in for CRV so he can eat. Sad. Creative, but sad.
Anyway like I said, there aren't a lot of things in the house i really have a sentimental attachment to. Very few things I'd call 'treasured' by any means. Maybe my journals. I'm a big history buff and a huge believer in the idea that 'those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it'. My excellent memory aside, I write down almost everything that happens to me and save it for posterity's sake. Maybe if I make the mistake that means my end, those journals will help someone else not make the same kind of mistake. Or maybe when it comes down to it, my most treasured possession is my hat. I never leave home without it--like Amex!--and one of my friends magicked it up so it can hold anything inside, like Mary Poppins' bag. A useful fucking hat, and very dashing too.