Hey Yan!
I’ve always loved the idea of apologizing to stuff, and I ‘ve especially been enjoying it these last couple of months that you’ve been addressing and unpacking it for us all… I just wanted to offer a small adition to Mr. Copperthwate’s (sp.?) idea. He says that it may be true that a kitchen knife has no feelings, but that the apology-to-stuff is really for the apologizer. I think that while he’s right in as much as that the apology is also for the apologizer, there’s more… Of course our inanimate objects may not have feelings, but I think that the true potential in the apology to stuff is our understanding what stuff is really about. Why is it that we really believe in the apology to stuff? Because we think it might be wrong for people to abuse stuff. Because we think that it may be that humanity needs to look at stuff not as ‘objects’ that are ours to own as much as we want of, or to use in any way we see fit (can you imagine your kitchen knife saying: ‘I fell that you just treat us like objects’!). If stuff belongs to us, and we have every right to use and abuse stuff, than there truly is no need to apologize, and we can feel just like a Feudal Lord who had no idea that he might need to apologize to his surfs for their slavery. The reason that it might not be so, is that stuff is not ours (Just like we learned this morning in the Mei SHiloach about Shmitta). Stuff is a gift,directly from the Source of Stuff, Blessed be He, Himself. To treat the world as a precious gift, and all things in it as such, is to allow Stuff to be connected to its own Truth. The reason we can’t sack the Rainforests, trash Oceans or abuse our kitchen knives comes fro the same place, and so does the apology to all of those things. The Apology is first and foremost to the Bestower of stuff, for if a King gave you a precious gift and you broke it, abused it or neglected it, would you not be culpable to Him? Our kitchen knife may not have feelings, but they are only the beginning of our responsibility to stuff and it’s Truth.
Love Udi