Today, after literally two or three years of deliberation, during which time I had two new sets of nose pads welded on, I decided to replace my very cherished Ray-Ban aviators.
I wear sunglasses religiously and I’ve been wearing Ray-Ban aviators since I was eighteen. I’ve basically never had another pair of sunglasses and if I have I always go back to the Ray Bans.
So I finally replaced them and I decided: ok, this new pair I am gonna treat like gold!
Obviously the previous pair (I’ve had for about ten years, maybe nine) got chucked in the handbag, fell on the floor, the kids played with it, And I would always just bend the arms back to “mend” it and so on..
So I thought ok this new pair will be looked after so beautifully. What that means is; I’m never going to close the arms.
That’s my husbands rule with his reading glasses, he can’t see without them so he wears them the whole day and then at night he leaves them open on the bedside table because he says the closing of the arms is what weakens the bolt and that’s how the arms of the glasses get loose.
So, I’ve been carefully finding a special place in my car for the glasses and leaving the arms open.
Anyway, today was my third day of wearing the glasses. I needed to pop out quickly to fetch something from the electrician and when I did I left my beautiful new sunglasses, with the arms open, on the seat and said to myself “I’m leaving these on the seat. I will not sit on them”.
I went in, got my sonic-cold-air-essential-oil-diffuser, came back To the car, and put it on the passenger seat. I took a beautiful, relaxing ‘Ahhhh’ breath as I sat down. And then i instinctively started looking for my glasses.
Pause.
“I’ve sat on them. I’m sitting on the glasses”.
I pulled them out and actually almost vomited because my brand-new Ray-Ban aviators were completely skew. I sat on them in such a way that the arms bent perpendicular to what theyre supposed to be and now face downwards.
I’ve since sort of semi-corrected them but low and behold they are now sitting slightly skew on my face which is exactly what the previous pair always did from all the above mentioned mistreatment.
So what’s the message?
Firatly one should never over prioritize the item, the proverbial Ray-Ban’s are gonna get scratched, they gonna get messed, they gonna get “whatevered”...
should you neglect them? No.
but should you invest emotionally in them more than is required? Also no.
I should’ve just said these glasses are gonna get worn and that’s why I’m buying them, I’m buying them to wear them and wearing glasses involves opening the arms and closing the arms especially for the intended use. I need to wear them when I’m out, I need to fold them , put them in the handbag, and what’s going to happen over time is the arms are going to loosen. End of story.
but now in my quest for perfection I’ve destroyed them after two days, and I think that THAT is the message of this eighty-twenty paradaigm that I’m working so hard to live my life by.
or, as I said to someone today, fall in love with the seventy-five percent.
You're never gonna tick all the boxes, you are never gonna tick all the boxes, so work towards ticking eighty percent of the boxes. Ray-Ban aviators tick all of my boxes when they are in mint condition, but they only can be in mint condition for about a day. The second you’ve opened and closed those arms a few times, the mechanism is slightly weakened in the nut and bolt section of things. It’s the same with a new car, it’s the same with a new dress, it’s the same with a new anything that’s material.
The only place you are gonna perfect something the more you use it is in the realm of the spiritual and the emotional, the more you develop that emotional muscle of not reacting, the stronger that muscle gets, not the weaker and so on and so on and so forth.
