Can Vacuum Cleaners Get Jealous?

Can vacuum cleaners get jealous? This is almost a serious question. People who have spent time out in nature sometimes get the impression that the elements are alive, and I, personally, don't know all there is to know about the nature of matter. It is possible that, when God created the Earth and the other planets, He did so by speaking, and the matter obeyed. If matter has enough intelligence to obey the will of God, then perhaps it has enough intelligence to feel. And perhaps that intelligence isn't completely lost when the matter changes form, from natural resources to raw materials, and from raw materials into vacuum cleaners.

The reason I ask this hopefully not entirely ridiculous question is that, several weeks back, I blogged about My Favorite Vacuum, but since I wrote that blog post, my preference has changed. "My Favorite Vacuum" is no longer my favorite vacuum. So I ask, can vacuum cleaners get jealous? Did my change of preference, or even establishing a preference at all, cause any hurt feelings among those vacuum cleaners?

Of course, this is a ridiculous question. Even if the elements did have emotions (which, to be fair, I'm not sure whether they do or don't), they would have to learn to manage those emotions, just as we all do. We all have to cope with being chosen or not chosen, and so do they. Naturally, one should try not to be unkind, even to "unfeeling" inanimate objects, but perhaps we shouldn't go far out of our way to spare the hurt feelings of vacuum cleaners. It's not always practical. Life's not always fair, not even to things that aren't actually alive (in the way that we understand "life"), and they have to live with the unfairness of life in the same way we do, by reducing that unfairness if and when we can, and by relying on God to eliminate that unfairness through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

In the meantime, it seems to me that the best course of action is to practice kindness at all times, at least within the limits of practicality. Those who are in charge of hiring must employ the best applicant for the job. The same harsh reality also applies to vacuum cleaners. Cleaners should select the best available vacuum for the given job. If that means that one vacuum or another ends up being a clear favorite, so be it. And if that favorite changes because circumstances have changed, the job has changed, or, in my case, a knew technique is developed, then, again, so be it.

I don't know if vacuum No. Two got jealous when I started using The Pig more, and I don't know if vacuum No. One was ever jealous that I had always preferred vacuum No. Two. And now there are new vacuums to consider, to say nothing of the rarely-used Bull. I could drive myself crazy trying to manage the presently unknown and perhaps nonexistent emotional states of these vacuum cleaners.

Besides, handling those vacuums isn't my job anymore anyway. Not for the next few months, at least.

I didn't even tell them goodbye.

I believe that, as a general practice, it is good to be kind, compassionate, and considerate. Of course, it is possible to take any of those virtues too far. My concern for the jealousy of vacuum cleaners will never prevent me from selecting what I judge to be the best tool for the current job. I have a new favorite vacuum cleaner, and I would continue to use it to do most of my vacuuming, even at the risk of making the other vacuum cleaners jealous.

Vacuum cleaners may or may not be capable of getting jealous, but inasmuch as we are capable, we should always try to exercise as much kindness as the limits of practicality allow.