Sheldon and his wife, Tan, are traveling back home to Taiwan after ten years in Sheffield, England. They have been making preparations for months and eagerly look forward to the trip. The week before the trip, Tan realizes that she had no gift for her now 20 year old niece. Since she will be tied up at work, she begs Sheldon to purchase a handbag for her niece and gives him one of her handbags to serve as a sample.

He was overwhelmed by the different styles at the mall and could not find one similar to his wife’s sample. He favored a brown Nila Anthony designer handbag with ostrich textured satchel and decided to go with it. On his way home, he found himself for the first time in his life paying attention to the different handbags women had on their arms. Sometimes approving the quality and design, other times critiquing the handbag choice. “This is strange,” he laughed. “Since when did I become interested in women’s handbags?”

He thought seriously about this question and came to the realization that it was only after his search for a handbag that he began noticing them all around him. It dawned on him that a man sees and hears not with his eyes and ears but with his spirit.

… And the state of a man’s spirit changes with his change in volition. Hence his volition determines how he sees and hears the things before him.