incense

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An order of incense arrived the other day -- six boxes plus some gratis samplers for something less than $100. A hundred bucks seems like quite a lot for such a 'frivolous' item, but, during the year when I will probably use it up, I have found that the expense tends to lose its force.

Naturally, I wouldn't have spent the money if someone in my family would go hungry on account of it, but ... well, when it comes to spending what we have, we all just take our best guess, I guess.

And having taken that best guess, the expense tends to lose its force over time. People sometimes complain about the expense of Zen retreats, for example, but later it's not so much the money as the experience that they recall.

And maybe this is true of any sort of spending ... whether it is physical or emotional or intellectual. The experience is recalled. The spending is not so important.

Just noodling.
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