Wallace Dialogue Resource

Why did we evolve this way?


Why is it sometimes I don't want to get out of bed in the morning when I HAVE to--it would seem to benefit me to have evolved with a self-preservational instinct for dragging my ass out of the warmth and psychological  cover of dreamland.  What makes the farmer rise at the crack of dawn's freshly laid egg?  Habit or instinct?  Would it work as well if it was only just a sense of responsibility?  An ethic?  Much is made of that and that personality type, regional as it is often asserted, but it has to be more.  Even if it's just an affinity for the animals.  Something somewhere--some higher more complicated truth--that could allow for both a loving feeding, milking hand and still a steady hand with the butcher's tool.  


What if we evolved without teeth, if that were possible--what if there was a safe evolutionary line that could still be drawn through the treacherous waters of tribal-plain-hunter-gatherer existence even without the ability to tool-lessly tear at raw animal flesh or with only an extraordinary ability to grind plants with rocks while on the run   from predators.  I think we would still have an affection for foody matters; we would still think of exciting ways to prepare and present our food pastes.


Which is all to say that the truth comes out no matter what.  So maybe the desire to not get out of bed means I shouldn't.


It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building.  You know how I know that?  Because you can actually type "How long did it take to build the Empire State Building?" into Google and before you get to typing the word "take" it's already suggesting possible ways to complete your query including "to build Noah's Ark?" and "to build the Great Wall of China" and "for the Titanic to sink," which all makes one acutely aware that one is not the first person to tread upon this ground.  Which is only slightly unnerving.  It's a comfort to know someone's been here before but it also makes you feel a little dirty.  Until, that is, you get over yourself and realize that it's all dirty.  You think you're the first person to think about not wanting to get out of bed?  Or to dread the coming days when you wont have teeth to chew your food and how in ancient times that would mean being left out to starve beyond the walls?  Or even fucking your mother?  I mean shit, Oedipus was first performed in 429 BC (again, Google).


I very much enjoy the word "inveterate."  I like the way it sounds.  I like saying it.  I like drinking wine until I get intoxicated too but I know there's a limit to that kind of behavior--that it will ultimately do damage presumably to my liver--I'm not a doctor so I'm just going on conventional wisdom here.  So but do you think everything boils down to "it's either good for you or bad for you?" the way our society seems to suggest?  And if so where would saying the word "inveterate" over and over to yourself fall--on which side of the good vs. bad line?  Assuming of course that you could get past the obvious notion that someone who repeats the same word over and over to oneself would eventually get marginalized by his or her social circle and even most likely committed in some form of institution where food paste is served on a regular basis with no regard whatsoever for the charms of so-called haute cuisine.  Well maybe that's the point - that it is therefore "bad for you" by definition since being marginalized and served three meals a day of low-grade nutritionally balanced but aesthetically questionable potluck is quote-unquote bad.  But beyond that, do you think that in the long run saying "inveterate" over and over to myself would eventually prove to either be good or really bad for me?  Has anyone ever tried?  Maybe like in the way certain mantras can lead to higher thought or at a minimum focus one on the soi-disant more important things in life, repeating a word over and over can get you there too.  Maybe it depends on the word.  Maybe inveterate gets you off the wheel of samsara but, like, "pantyhose" consigns you to the 4th circle.  Food for thought.


Inveterate...inveterate...inveterate.  I could go on all day.