"In Our Western culture, though not in all cultures, man seems so constituted that he can never rest upon his laurels. The moment he has achieved something, be it a position in the world, marriage and a family, a successful piece of research, a new book, painting, or musical composition, he is driven to question its value and look for something more. If problems are not there, he will invent them. Man seems to be a problem-seeking as well as a problem-solving animal. We are programmed to change, develop, and meet new challenges until we die. We are compelled to be perpetual travellers. If we travel hopefully, that is as much as we ought to expect. If we do not, we become depressed. The idea that we can ever arrive at a stable state in which life's problems are settles is an illusion. The only "final solution" is death."
Luckily, I am pretty busy today.
Today the woman who owns the little store downstairs told me I was crazy because she saw me walking down the street, reading a book, listening to music, and sending an email - all at the same time. (She left out my singing along.) She told me lots of things this morning.
She told me a story about a woman who had been begging for a cup of coffee in front of her store all day yesterday. She would tell people she just needed enough money for a cup of coffee; and once she got the money for a cup she would walk into Tully's, get a free cup of ice, and go right back to panhandling. My friend was pretty sure she was using the money to buy drugs. I asked her what she did about it.
She said, "Nothing because I was too scared."
"Why?"
"She was, you know..."
"What?"
"Black," she whispered.
"I thought she was going to knife me or have me jumped."
"Well, we certainly can't have that."
In other news, I have now lost 170 pounds in the past 13 months and that's including all those crepes in Paris.
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