Can I come back?

Truman Prevatt wrote:

Jerry, I am not complaining about anything. I am in total wonder how anyone could love an inanimate object. When I talked to my psychologist sister about such things - her comment was "welcome to my world. Humans are strange and that is why I retired at 55 except for my work with profiling pathological behavior for the ISP."

I don't care one way or another - but I still find it amazing how anyone could attribute human attributes to pieces of metal, plastic and glass. Yes, there is a psychological term for it -anthropomorphism. Is it a metal disorder - my sister says it can be in some cases. Do we have "some cases" here? Who knows - who cares. I don't. People can anthropomorphize all they want. It is not skin of my nose.

My cameras are nice and they are a wonderful tool but - they are nothing more than metal, plastic and glass.

People get emotional over all types of gear, not just cameras.  In most cases, I think that someone who claims to “love” their camera would not be confusing that with the sort of love they’d give a relative.

This, and the other equipment forums are full of enthusiasts who not only care about photography but are also passionate about their gear.  So, frankly, I’m not going to sit here and judge or accuse someone of being obsessive because they lay claim to “loving” their camera.  I use that term at times to describe inanimate objects, but I’m pretty sure that I’m not confused about the difference between loving some gear and loving my bride.  I’m pretty sure that most folks on this forum can also readily make that distinction.

And finally, it may not be “any skin off your nose,” but clearly it’s important enough to you to put a lot of words down discussing it here.  Getting into a debate of the meaning of “love” with respect to gear is sort of pointless, TBH, and I’d just as soon we move on rather than continuing a discussion that sure feels to be to also be sort of pointless... and mostly a matter of semantics.