Sunday, March 05, 2006

Here we are again, in the middle of the night...

I've spent my entire adult life moving gradually west. Much further west, and I'll fall in the water, in fact.

I'm not sure why, either.

Looking at it, I'd be hard pressed to give an answer--any more than a salmon can explain its spawning behavior. While I'd like to think I'm a bit smarter than the average salmon, sometimes I've very little evidence to back that up.

*sigh*

We all do those things, though, don't we--things we can look at later, and exclaim about, when we see a pattern?

There are the obvious human physical motivators driving us all the time, of course: food, shelter, sex, pain. Then, though, there are also the invisible, non-physical motivators: honor, faith, superstition, sex, or fear.

The older I get, the harder a time I have separating those spheres from each other, in my version of reality.

6 comments:

Stacia said...

Do you really need to separate them, though? They're all kind of connected anyway. How you feel about honour is goig to color how you think about sex, or how you respond to people whose ethics or morals differ from yours.

If you keep going west, you'll end up back in the east. :-) (OK, it sounded kind of cute before I started writing it, anyway.)

uniquematerial said...

mac - reality is overrated. Why don't you believe me?

Anonymous said...

I agree w/ December, all of what you said is intertwined. So, how can you separate it?

And, yup, sex is in both categories. So, yeah, there's a pattern! Of course I happen to think you're one of the most honorable people I know.

I moved east when I should have stayed in the west. Which is where I belong. At the time, it was a geographic. That was almost 24 years ago. I have learned that regardless of where I am or where I go, I take me w/ me.

Mac said...

Sex is the first human instinct/drive that I fully realized belongs on both lists--but more and more, I'm becoming aware that things like what sort of food you eat, and how you approach it; that has tremendous spiritual, non-physical ramifications and facets, as well.

It all makes me smile, because it's part of the mystery of sentience--which is beautiful.

Frank Baron said...

I've always felt fear was THE prime motivator, fear of death mostly. That's why we look both ways before crossing the street: Why we (most of us) procreate: Why some of us want to create works of art or something of substance to leave behind: Why we don't tell that 7' biker to STFU when he talks during the movie.

And probably why you keep moving west Mac. Were you frightened as a child by some east coast lobster fisherman? ;)

ohdawno said...

My prime motivator is napping. I work so I can afford someday to retire and nap whenever I darn well feel like it.