Can one truly love a "thing"?

x2.. I also love my purse, hm

Yes, I think so. I love my stuffed bear Fatso, who I’ve had since I was 5-years-old. If something were to happen to him, I’d bawl like a little baby.

I love my favorite of my six stuffed cats. She’s the best; I’ve had her since 1993. I remember I cried when she chipped her eye. Even today, like @DrasticDreamer, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.

(And I do love my iPhone…great piece of technology it is).

I love the pictures I have of my son and family. Does that count?

My second car was an MGB. I absolutely loved that car.

Objectophilia

i love lamp.

I have many items that I love. Items from when my daughter was alive are all I have of her.

But on an upbeat note—I love my iPhone. I seriously don’t know what I did without it. It’s pretty much an addiction. I’ve been called an app-aholic. I have to charge my phone way more than I should…part of being a stay-at-home mom with nothing to do.

There is really something fundamental about the iPhone that you really, emotionally get connected with that. Especially if you are making the use of the apps offered on the App Store, the platform becomes too good to be missed. When Apple says that there is an app for everything, they really mean it.

…i love this crazy little thing called “love”...

hey! I love that song (thats a thing) gosh this is fun=D

You people and your Iphones. I’m about a step up from the bag phone and can barely use it!

I love campfires and boats.

They both put me in my “happy place”.

@jonsblond That would be a nice thread. What puts you in your “happy place.” I like your answer.

@chyna Go for it! Hopefully it hasn’t been asked recently. :)

@jonsblond I have GOT to go do laundry. If you see me on here one more time this evening, shoo me off.

Oh, maybe. Sometimes it takes a different turn entirely . Driven by desperation/delusion or honestly manifested “love”?

@chyna shoo!

Yes, you can absolutely love a thing, though it’s not quite the same thing as loving a person or a pet. When I think over the things I love, most of them have a human element to them—great paintings, the perfect Stickley or Mosher chair, a beautiful letterpress book, the perfect dress.

When push comes to shove, I’d rather love a person or a pet than an inanimate object, but there are some “things” that REALLY make me happy.

I love my toys, like iPod, MacBook, Yamaha scooter.

Depends on one’s definition of love. If you ask an objectum sexual they’d tell you yes, absolutely.

I love my truck. I mean I really love my truck, more than any other vehicle I’ve ever owned. Oh I don’t hug it or anything, but I would if I could. As for being sexual with it, um, no, as hot metal parts and naked flesh are a bad combination. don’t ask how I know that.

@evelyns_pet_zebra – you should put a pic of your truck in the fluther photo album. I have heard so much about it, I would like to see it!

Sure—I love my girlfriend. What’s the problem?

<3

Sure. Almost every guy I have ever met loves his thing.

certainly. it just can’t love you back.
unless…hmmm

Offcourse you can, I love my ipod touch!!!

I have a beautiful antique bookshelf in my room, filled with beautiful antique books. I really like it, but the other day I was in my room looking at it, and I realized how much distance there was between me and it. There’s always a distance between objects and myself. I have trouble feeling as though things “belong” to me. My bedroom feels almost like a hotel room to me.

No, I can’t love an object.

Oh yes.

I love books! All sorts, all kinds, paperback, hardcover, fiction, non-fiction, comic, new old. It doesn’t matter. I think if someone told me I had to give up human contact but could have every book ever written, I might take them up on it.

Unfortunately, we are an extremely materialistic species. I love my synthesizers. I love my puppy more, however!

I think so. For instance, I think people can love things that have a strong personal association or sentimental value, such as a favorite childhood toy, a family heirloom, or an item that stands for a loved one. We often say it loosely (“I love your bracelet!” “My dad loves that chair.”) and don’t mean it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mean it. I love certain books, for example—not the way I love a pet, and certainly not the way I love a son, but I don’t believe we are restricted in the amount and kind of love that we can feel.

I must have a different concept for love. I can appreciate and treasure a thing, but love is an emotion that only applies to something that can at least have the potential to love you back.

My iPhone loves me.

I love my ipod shuffle.

I love this fluther thing we have here.

I love certain books.

Oh – and my hot water bottle.

Oh oh.. and my hemorroid medications – they have saved my butt, literally.

If that “thing” looks like this, then the answer is a resounding YES:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/10/ab-45_california_dsc_2935_opt.jpg