Almost all the time, I wear a pair of glasses I bought by accident.
I needed them as a rare backup to another pair — one with a beautiful, bright, expensive frame. For the sake of that "main" pair, I tried on a pile of alternatives. The backup I grabbed off the shelf without much of a look.
The beautiful glasses sit unused — uncomfortable. The "backup" pair fit immediately, taking root as if they'd found their native soil.
I think of several other things I bought spontaneously — despite the rush, the delivery hassles, or the high price. They still bring me joy: a figurine, a leather jacket, a desk lamp.
"Joy" is the key word.
It gets lost too easily behind a pile of others — practical, appropriate, prestigious, high-quality, stylish, and so on.
The joy of using something is specific. It's a sensation in the whole body, not just the head. And not in how others perceive it — but in yourself.
I think back to choosing my motorcycle. After flipping through stacks of catalogs, I had a "sensible" favorite for a novice. I touched it in person — zero emotion. In a rush, I stopped into a Honda dealer, sat on an MT-07, and bought it on the spot.
I never once regretted it — the pleasure it brought me was immense. Experienced bikers put it this way: "You choose a motorcycle with your ass."
This is about the dominance of Body wisdom over the rationality of the Mind. The Mind performs its functions — monitoring defects, counting money, reviewing the contract. The Mind is the CFO. The Body is the CEO.
Of course, "Body" here doesn't mean a collection of muscles, bones, organs, and blood vessels. It means your entire organism, including the aspects you can see and the ones you can't.
The wisdom of the Body is the result of billions of years of evolution, down to the cellular level. It also carries the history of your entire lineage. And above all, the Body is inseparably connected to its environment.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
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