When I’m walking with traffic on the sidewalk, I don’t like to see vehicles pass me and slow down soon afterward, and turn off the road onto a side street. I’m afraid they’re waiting for me to reach the turn off on foot. Then they’ll attack. I don’t like to see objects in discomfort. Here are some examples:

1. When I pull my feet out of my shoes, the insoles have a tendency of making a hill. It would bother me to let the hills stay as they are, so I push them down flat, as I imagine they prefer to be.

2. Some of our window blinds are folded up near the top when not in use. When you want to blind the windows, you undo the cord and the blinds fall by their own weight, but sometimes they don’t unfold all the way. And it would bother me to let them stay curled near the bottom, so I tug them straight.

The idea that objects are capable of experiencing discomfort is an idea that suggests they are alive. And this is in accord with some Eastern religions which teach that all objects are inhabited by some supernatural entity, so that the term ‘inanimate object’ is ludicrous.

If you’re on a plane awake, try this one: when you cut a sheet of paper in half, are you creating divinity?