Did you have a special item that meant the world to you as a child? A teddy bear, perhaps a teething toy, that filled your toddler-mind with unparalleled joy?

If you did (and I know you did), what did you call it — a binkie? A nom-nom? I had one. It was a green blanket that gave me comfort, joy and warmth. I called it my “Kee-Kee.”

As a matter of fact, I still have it, and use it occasionally on cold winter nights. A little threadbare, to be sure, but still able to protect one’s tootsies against old Jack Frost.

Several decades later (yet still emotionally stunted), I got curious about the underpinnings of the need for an external item that we, as children, associated with comfort and safety.

It seems that items such as these have been ingrained in our emotional DNA since Day One. They are called comfort objects. Or transitional objects. Or, in deference to “Peanuts’” Linus Van Pelt, a security blanket.

A little light research revealed that these items are used to provide psychological comfort, especially in unusual or unique situations, or at bedtime for children. Among toddlers, comfort objects may take the form of a blanket, a stuffed animal, or a favorite toy, and may be referred to by nicknames – like Kee Kee!

I’ll admit it. I used a totem while at Orangeburg Elementary School (Go Tigers!). It was a small ball of blue fluff with google eyes, red feet and antennae. The kind of toy you got out of a vending machine for a dime in the 1970s. His name is Pineapple. Not “was Pineapple,” since I still have him.

During most of the school day he stayed in my Six Million Dollar Man lunch box keeping my cheese sandwich company. During P.E., however, he sat on the front bleacher by my teacher, cheering me on.

English pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Woods Winnicott studied the subject. The term he used was “transitional object,” referring to the phase in our development between what we think versus reality.

Sleeping underneath your bedding makes you feel safe and protected, which increases your brain’s serotonin levels and decreases the presence of stress hormones. Scientific explanations aside, blankets are just plain soft and comfy. That’s reason enough to get tucked at night.

Face it: everyone has a method they use to cope. I wonder if that is why people try such out of the box experiences as deprivation tanks.

As adults, we have numerous objects that give us a sense of well-being or, for lack of a better analogy, an emotional “fix.” For example, comfort food. Like the stereotypical Haagen Dazs ice cream binge after a bad breakup. Or Sex and the City reruns while belting out Lady Antebellum songs. For the record, I do not intend to be sexist – it’s just that a guy’s coping mechanism is usually not fit to print, proving again the female is the superior of the species.

After careful consideration, I’ve decided that carrying my Kee Kee through a normal workday might make me seem peculiar. That’s why I have a new transitional object I keep by my side any time I am in public. It’s called a credit card.

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Robert Roe