It might only cost $2 in the vending machine, but that can of soda is a complicated battery.
It stores the energy of the machines that were used to mine the bauxite, the ship that brought the ore to Iceland, the astonishing temperatures used to create the aluminum, then more shipping, more processing, more handling, the lights in the store and the power to the vending machine.
But what about that book you just read? Not simply the energy to print it and ship it, or even the energy to grow the trees…
What about the energy of a life well lived by the author? The edits and rewrites and dead ends?
Everything feels different once we realize that something happened for it to become what it is now.