Maybe! Lessee...

(How should he explain this without being too complicated,)

When a "thing" gets old enough, it gets a "soul." The soul it gets is made up of all the feelings and experiences it had up 'til that moment and once it gets one, it'll keep growing like that too.

(Basically, a spirit possesses a tool!!)

So if ya treat something real good, it'll wanna be good for ya. But if you're careless, ya can't expect the thing to care.