Falling in love repeatedly is a condition which plagues the rich and carefree.
What an arresting thought I first came about in a passage by Oscar Wilde.
"You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love. A grande passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do."
To think of romance, dating and affairs of the heart as a luxury afforded primarily to the first world. Please do not believe that I am so misguided as to think that the poor, the "have nots", and people of developing nations do not love or fall in love. I'm quite sure they do. Rather I wonder, is it the topic that occupies the majority of their thoughts and conversations? Is the extortion of it one of the most visible elements of their society and culture? With basic human rights in limbo from day to day, would an individual even want all the drama and energy and complications that make up our average Western love story? Our "grandes passions" as Wilde puts it.
Is it selfish to fall in love? I don't think so. Is it sinful to make mistakes and fall in and out of love multiple times? Perhaps not. Is it ignorant to view romantic love as a necessity? Maybe. To be able to daydream about love, to pursue love interests at our leisure, to be able to expend so much of our time and energy on the subject ~ that is our privilege, and perhaps our mistake.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Chocolate Cravings and other Mathematical Dilemmas
There's a formula for overcoming cravings, I'm sure of it. It would include variables such as:
-length of dependence
-proximity to and frequency of encounter to the temptation
-measurement of a person's stubbornness and commitment to crushing the craving
Factor all these variables together and the equation will spit out your best solution for approaching the problem along with a percentage coinciding with your actual chance of success. I'm getting really close to being patent ready with my very scientific and mathematically sound cravings cure.
For example: My chocolate cravings
- length of dependence: ~20-21 years
- proximity to chocolate: we live together
- stubbornness: I could really go either way
= 15% chance of success on the day to day....however the good news is that with every day I beat the odds, the chance of beating the craving the following day increases by 5% up to a maximum of 85%....nobody's perfect.
See how helpful that is/would be!?!
Sometimes you have to really test the craving too...for the sake of science. So once you think you crushed your craving you must test yourself. You should think about it and see whether you have harnessed your mental capacities and employed them in the effort to crush the craving. You might make plans to come into contact with it, and when you do -- will the sight, smell, memories etc make you falter or will you stand firm and celebrate victory?
That's the only way to truly say you've overcome it, to test yourself.
So on to the testing of things bigger and better and more important than chocolate. Let's see if I'm all talk.
-length of dependence
-proximity to and frequency of encounter to the temptation
-measurement of a person's stubbornness and commitment to crushing the craving
Factor all these variables together and the equation will spit out your best solution for approaching the problem along with a percentage coinciding with your actual chance of success. I'm getting really close to being patent ready with my very scientific and mathematically sound cravings cure.
For example: My chocolate cravings
- length of dependence: ~20-21 years
- proximity to chocolate: we live together
- stubbornness: I could really go either way
= 15% chance of success on the day to day....however the good news is that with every day I beat the odds, the chance of beating the craving the following day increases by 5% up to a maximum of 85%....nobody's perfect.
See how helpful that is/would be!?!
Sometimes you have to really test the craving too...for the sake of science. So once you think you crushed your craving you must test yourself. You should think about it and see whether you have harnessed your mental capacities and employed them in the effort to crush the craving. You might make plans to come into contact with it, and when you do -- will the sight, smell, memories etc make you falter or will you stand firm and celebrate victory?
That's the only way to truly say you've overcome it, to test yourself.
So on to the testing of things bigger and better and more important than chocolate. Let's see if I'm all talk.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Compasses
When we are born, each of us is gifted with a compass. They are all the same, all equal to each other, and they have been since man's beginnings. Each person carries their compass every single day of their lives. When we die, our compass does not become an inheritable heirloom, but rather it is buried with us.
There have been debates as old as the hills as to whether our compass is originally set to point true north, or whether it is set to point the opposite direction, or whether the way the arrow points is arbitrary. Whatever the answer, it seems to be the case that by the time we've put a decade or two between us and our birth, our compasses do not all point in the same direction. Most of us believe we are headed north, with varying degrees of truth to our navigating. However, we can quickly get ourselves spun around after having a head-on collision with someone else northern bound.
Not very many people can actually point in the general direction of north anymore, let alone the elusive true north. We've all been tinkering with our compasses, adjusting the magnetization so that they point where we think north is, where we have been led to believe north is. Sometimes we let our compasses be adjusted by the people who speak and walk so confidently in their knowledge of north. The whole world is walking each point of 360 degrees, and every single degree and the space in between is somebody's north. No wonder we're all crashing into each other. Everybody's lost, and sometimes its the ones that are the most lost that speak the loudest, that point to most persuasively in a certain direction.
By adulthood most people have stuffed their compass in an inner pocket somewhere and only pull it out when they feel they need to justify their chartered course. Of course, what solid proof can their be for one's navigational accuracy without a reliable compass.
If only we had a compass mechanic and an infallible navigator rolled into one. Someone to remind us where true north is. Someone we could have fix our compasses so they point that way consistently. If only the world had someone like that.
There have been debates as old as the hills as to whether our compass is originally set to point true north, or whether it is set to point the opposite direction, or whether the way the arrow points is arbitrary. Whatever the answer, it seems to be the case that by the time we've put a decade or two between us and our birth, our compasses do not all point in the same direction. Most of us believe we are headed north, with varying degrees of truth to our navigating. However, we can quickly get ourselves spun around after having a head-on collision with someone else northern bound.
Not very many people can actually point in the general direction of north anymore, let alone the elusive true north. We've all been tinkering with our compasses, adjusting the magnetization so that they point where we think north is, where we have been led to believe north is. Sometimes we let our compasses be adjusted by the people who speak and walk so confidently in their knowledge of north. The whole world is walking each point of 360 degrees, and every single degree and the space in between is somebody's north. No wonder we're all crashing into each other. Everybody's lost, and sometimes its the ones that are the most lost that speak the loudest, that point to most persuasively in a certain direction.
By adulthood most people have stuffed their compass in an inner pocket somewhere and only pull it out when they feel they need to justify their chartered course. Of course, what solid proof can their be for one's navigational accuracy without a reliable compass.
If only we had a compass mechanic and an infallible navigator rolled into one. Someone to remind us where true north is. Someone we could have fix our compasses so they point that way consistently. If only the world had someone like that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)