Puzzle Ball

I have a puzzle ball on my desk. It's composed of six of whatever the shape is if you take the cover off a baseball. It cost me two quarters from a vending machine. Here it sat on my desk for weeks, until I shook it, and heard something rattle inside.

Well, I had to have that, whatever it was.

There is probably an elegant solution to disassemble the thing, some sleight of hand, perhaps a twist of fate. Maybe a bed of nails is involved. Would it make me wait? I don't know, and I still don't know. After five minutes of trying to slide every piece every which way, I found out by squeezing in on a panel, several other panels would almost peel back from the main structure. At this point, I could wedge my finger under, and eventually brute forced it open. The entire structure collapsed on cue, leaving me with six almost identical pieces, and the directions. Yes, the directions. For assembling it.

There are a few things I have to say here. One, at least it wasn't the instructions to disassemble it. Two, you sick bastards are going to tell me how to put it back together? Three, that was my prize?

At least I didn't resort to the hammer on my desk, as was the original plan. Alexander the Great, meet Gordian knot. But what does it say about us, about how we approach this, how we approach anything? Have I really become (was I always) a person that brute forces a solution, rather than finesse it? Is this going to be a detriment to my way of life?

The damned thing is no longer as strong as it was when I first got it. After a few seconds of pressing on it, it bent inward and collapsed.

The other question this raises, why do I see everything as a puzzle that can be solved? I know that there are lots of things that can't be solved, and some things that shouldn't. Well, I know this in my head. In my heart, I see things that are broken, and try to fix them. Note this is akin to shaving the corners off a sphere. What part of me is so insistent on order? Probably the same part of me that is obsessed with Tetris. But Tetris is so simple, so intricate. I brute forced the hell out of that sphere.

Don't know why this concerns me so. I'm too damned close to it. Someone needs to stare at me for a few days and "Tell me what the fuck is wrong with meeeeeeee...."