A great thing about blogging is the synergy.  I get a lot of ideas from reading other people's blogs.  Anyway, today I was thinking a lot about the concept of a most valuable possession.  There are a lot of ways to think about it I guess - if you could only save one thing from your burning house, what would it be?  Or if you could only take one thing to a deserted island, what would it be?  I'm not talking about living things or abstractions - not your pet or your mother or your health.  Those aren't possessions for the sake of this question.  It's indeed hard to narrow it down to one item, or even one class of items.  Your most valuable possession could be of great sentimental value, of great monetary value, of great utilitarian value - I need not venture into the philosophy of how we ascertain value.

For me, I guess it would be the acoustic guitar my mom gave for the first Christmas after my dad died.  In addition to being my first acoustic guitar, it was a tacit acknowledgement that my mom was both desperate and helpless to alleviate the sadness of the holiday.  It was no replacement, to be sure, but given the circumstances no other possession has done as much to help me.  So in that sense, it is both sentimental and utilitarian, in that I derive enjoyment from playing it.  What is your most valuable possession? 

Bonus points if you know your most valuable possession according to Ben Folds's dad.