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I have done this all my life! I had a dad with quite an imagination who used to concoct amazing stories for us kids out of thin air, so maybe that's where I got it.
I don't assign genders, but I find myself thinking of inanimate objects as having souls and sometimes consciousness. I don't get carried away with it, but it does create a problem when it's time to get rid of something, like trading in a car, or taking down the Christmas tree!
I have done this all my life! I had a dad with quite an imagination who used to concoct amazing stories for us kids out of thin air, so maybe that's where I got it.
I don't assign genders, but I find myself thinking of inanimate objects as having souls and sometimes consciousness. I don't get carried away with it, but it does create a problem when it's time to get rid of something, like trading in a car, or taking down the Christmas tree!
What you are describing is ,for me, one of the nicest qualities that humans have.
Some cars are designed with a stylized face as it appeals to buyers. In fact, one of the reasons I bought my then new 2015 Hyundai Elantra because it had a smiley face with dimples.
Cars have genders and personalities to a lot of people. I like my Subaru. No name, but it's a scrappy little thing.
I cuss at my computers like they've betrayed me when I am stressed out.
And I talk to my plants and assign them personalities when I'm gardening.
Off topic, but you hear people talk about anthropomorphizing dogs a lot and how terrible it is. But the truth of the matter is that a lot of it is legit (not dressing them up, imo, but other things) - they have co-evolved with us and can actually read our body language quite well. I'm studying under instructors who train dogs according to how they evolved and it works extraordinarily well. But we don't bother to think like they do for much of the time, so we get it wrong on our ends a lot.
We used to have 2 dogs. Now, we just have Jake. We had to put our other dog, Emilee to sleep.
Jake is half Lhasa and half American Eskimo. I've always said he is a perpetually happy 6 yr. old little boy.
Emilee was part terrier and part chihuahua. Always a little bossy, always a little sassy, a little independent, but lovey dovey. LOL
Have you ever attributed human traits to inanimate objects? Sometimes I do. Mostly, I assign genders to inanimate objects.
For example,
Spoons are female. If its a fancy spoon, she's royalty.
Knives are male. They're dukes, counts, and royalty like that.
Forks are male. Fancy forks or bigger serving forks are kings.
Not DIRECTLY, as in your example. But my family used to have a superstition that "company was coming" if you dropped a utensil. Fork = man, spoon = woman, knife = we didn't specify.
When I was a little kid, there were two huge trees on our road. My mom and I would go out and "talk" to them. Mom would say, "Listen. I think Mrs. Tree is whispering something to you." And I would listen closely and then tell my mom what I heard Mrs. Tree say. It's one of my favorite memories. I still tend to assign personalities to things that most definitely do not have personalities... because I have a rampantly overactive imagination. I'm okay with it.
(When Mr. and Mrs. Tree were cut down, however, there was a LOT of emotion happening on my part. Even though I was old enough to understand that they were trees and not actually talking. Still had a hard time with it!)
When I was a little kid, there were two huge trees on our road. My mom and I would go out and "talk" to them. Mom would say, "Listen. I think Mrs. Tree is whispering something to you." And I would listen closely and then tell my mom what I heard Mrs. Tree say. It's one of my favorite memories. I still tend to assign personalities to things that most definitely do not have personalities... because I have a rampantly overactive imagination. I'm okay with it.
(When Mr. and Mrs. Tree were cut down, however, there was a LOT of emotion happening on my part. Even though I was old enough to understand that they were trees and not actually talking. Still had a hard time with it!)
What a great memory, and sad day when they were taken down. We're cut from the same cloth on this, Nicci6Squirrels!
When I was a little kid, there were two huge trees on our road. My mom and I would go out and "talk" to them. Mom would say, "Listen. I think Mrs. Tree is whispering something to you." And I would listen closely and then tell my mom what I heard Mrs. Tree say. It's one of my favorite memories. I still tend to assign personalities to things that most definitely do not have personalities... because I have a rampantly overactive imagination. I'm okay with it.
(When Mr. and Mrs. Tree were cut down, however, there was a LOT of emotion happening on my part. Even though I was old enough to understand that they were trees and not actually talking. Still had a hard time with it!)
Many years ago, when we were out in the country, my husband decided that he should thin out some of the trees that were very abundant. I thought he meant all the little trees, and saplings and such. When he started cutting down some of the bigger trees, I got physically agitated. It was really stressing me. He cut down 3 trees and I just HAD to make him stop. We argued a little about it, but in the end, I won the argument. Arguing "Why did we get a wooded lot, if you're going to cut down all the trees?"
And you know, when the wind is blowing through the trees, they're very much singing and talking. I hear it Nicci. XOXOXO
“Spoons are female .... knives are male.” Well, I’m sure most people forced to pick a gender for their cutlery would agree. LOL
I know it's silly. LOL
When I was a kid, and it was my turn to do the dishes, I'd always play bride and groom with a spoon and a fork. I'd drape a washcloth slightly over the spoon for her veil, and all the other silverware were guests.
Many many times one of my parents would tell me to quit doddling and finish the dishes. LOL
Oh I forgot, letters of the alphabet and numbers 1 thru 9 have genders assigned to them.
A's and B's are boys, C's are girls, G's can go either way, but Fs are definitely boys.
And 9s are boys.
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