What a Banjo Can Tell

As I stood on the sidewalk in downtown Rochester during Thursdays On First, a weekly summer event in Rochester that allows a great opportunity for making money street-performing, my guitar case open, the sun beating down on me and my fellow musicians, and my voice cracking from hours of trying to sing over the hubbub of the busy street, only one thought motivated me to keep playing. If I kept my music going for a few more hours, I might finally have enough money to buy a banjo. As I plucked my guitar strings while my best friend, Ciaran, strummed away on his mandolin, and Sophia played her violin, people stood around and listened to us play “The Ballad of Love and Hate,” a folk song by the Avett Brothers. When nine-thirty finally came and there were no more people passing by, I sat down to count out how much I had made in my ten hours of performing that day and found that I had, indeed, made enough money. I spent the next few days pouring over banjos on the internet, trying to pick one that was the quality I wanted. I was very particular because I did not want to be known for having a low quality banjo. So, I am a street performer who likes banjos and folk music. Do you have me figured out? Am I what I buy?

When I look around at peoples’ possessions, I am always left wondering who they really are because peoples’ possessions often mislead us. When we see people and the things that they own, we need to ask ourselves three important things. First, how do people represent themselves through what they buy? Second, what do people want or desire for themselves? And third, are people who they appear to be as shown by their possessions? When we take some time and explore the answers to these three questions, it will be clearer whether people are what they buy or not.

 When looking at the American culture to see how people represent themselves, a good place to start is with some of the most obvious possessions such as cars and clothes. Americans seem to use their cars to show at a glance how their owners want to be characterized. “The jock” is more likely to be driving a red Mercedes than a Smart car. The “tough guy” is less likely to be seen driving a mini-van, but might invest in a Harley. And a “soccer mom” is more likely to drive a mini-van than a Harley, which is an indicator that she’s a mom because it’s a practical choice for her family. Similarly, clothes also show others who they are. For example, people love to be characterized as the “jock” or the “musician” because of the outfits they wear. If guy is wearing an Adrian Peterson jersey, then chances are he is a football fan, and more specifically, a Vikings fan. That does not mean that at his core being, he is just a football fan and nothing more. Not only do people buy tangible things that others can see, but they also buy experiences. In the same way, my banjo does represent the tiny part of me that loves folk music, but it doesn’t show that my favorite genre of music is hardcore, a style that has much darker connotations to it. 

Running up to my room to count my money the Thursday night I had enough cash to buy a banjo, I threw down my acoustic guitar and collected money from all around my messy room. I rummaged through drawers full of Harry Potter books and notebooks, and I searched under various instruments until I finally gathered up all the money I had. The reason I wanted a banjo so badly is because I love how the banjo is a unique instrument with a very distinct sound, and also I believe it is a very undervalued and forgotten instrument in the current generation of youth, so I want to have something special that other kids my age don’t have. Although some people may argue that my purchase of skinny jeans and band t-shirts are just a couple more things that describe who I am, there are also many other genres of music that I also love that I haven’t purchased.

When people buy things, they often desire the approval of other people. Catching the eye of others, they feel a sense of comfort that comes with being supported or admired. The soccer mom in her minivan may have made her vehicle choice based on her need or desire to drive kids around. And the man wearing the sports jersey may have selected it because he desired to support his team or because he wanted to fit in with the rest of his friends who also love sports. People will do anything to belong, from dressing a certain way, to talking and acting a certain way, or even by pretending to know about things that they do not. The last reason we often buy things is to feel important or superior. Driving around in their nice sports cars, people might easily think, “I bet those people there in their rusted used car think I am pretty important” or “I look like I have a grand life compared to those people.” My banjo definitely shows what I desire. I want to be able to play music and I want to be accepted by the people who also love that genre of music.

The last and trickiest question is whether or not peoples’ possessions are a façade of who they really are. This leads me to think that we are not what we buy because what we buy is sometimes just what we want to seem rather than what we are. For example, a person might have a beautiful house, but they might just have a great eye for decorating cheaply by refinishing their tables or by sewing their own curtains or just by having a real knack for bargain shopping and a gift for hunting for great deals. Buying nice clothing may have left another person with no money for anything else so even though a person might give off the sense of being in style, they might actually be a very poor person in every other sense. So, if I bought a banjo to carry around rather than to learn to play it, or If I bought a banjo rather than saving up for an I-pod, I would be putting on a mask to seem a certain way that I’m not or I would just not be showing all the things I want in life.

From the possessions people buy to represent themselves, to the things people desire, and even to the façades people use to be accepted, what we buy plays an important role in who we are. Are we solely what we buy? When it comes to what we buy to show who we are, possessions cannot show who we are as a whole; they only show little bits and pieces of us. Even though someone may be dressed exactly the same as me, in skinny jeans and band t-shirts, and we might both be in different hardcore bands, often that kid uses lots of profanities when he speaks, whereas I don’t because I don’t find it a polite or intelligent way of presenting myself. We might also have opposite views on life, he might be an atheist, and I believe in a relationship with a God who loves. As for desires, sometimes we desire things that are contradictory to our other possessions such as a person wanting to belong to a group because they are cool, but their beliefs are contradictory to the groups’ beliefs. Lastly, if a person buys something to be accepted rather than because the item itself actually matters to them, they are not accurately depicting how a person is. If a person buys a football jersey, not because they like football, but because their friends like football, they are falsely representing themselves to fit in. Even though people buy things to represent themselves, their possessions cannot solely depict who they are. People are much too complex to be represented purely by what they buy. Therefore, we are not what we buy. The banjo can only reveal a little of who I am.