Here in room 44 I decided to move the desk to the middle of the room — or as close as the bed permits. As I made to lift it I was surprised by its mass. It was heavy! I’d expected it to fly. Briefly I wondered if it was bolted to the wall until, with a firmer lift, it made its way easily to middle of the room. But it left an impression. Of mass.

Mass gives us a certain confidence in an object. A heavy desk, a tungsten ball, a thick sweater. Mass feels reliable. Mass assures us that our trust in the object is well placed.

So looking from the other side, when an object’s mass is less than what we expected, or less than that of whatever our archetypal form of that object would suggest it should be… we’re disappointed. Sure, there are circumstances where lightness in an object is its own delight¹, but lightness rarely inspires the same confidence, or sense of stability.