Thursday, August 8, 2013

In the beginnings... (lessons built on old anticipations)

c0 Jacob de Backer, "Garden of Eden."
Click to enlarge: Jacob de Backer, "Garden of Eden." De Backer (c1555-c1585) was a Flemish Mannerist painter in Antwerp.
The beginnings of things occupy a special place in our experience and are often more intense and evocative than the things themselves, such as...

TV and movie themes
The opening riffs of a song
Meal appetizer
Battle cries
Foreplay
Births
The Pledge of Allegiance
• Starting out on a trip
Can of pop opening
Brewing coffee
Shopping

The list is endless.

Timing is everything: a school bell can mean the beginning of recess or the end of it; a steam whistle once meant your shift was starting or ending. Some sounds mean only one thing, like an alarm clock or crying baby, and are universally despised.

Beginnings are where mistakes are made - shopping while hungry, sex with someone you meet in a bar, trying on an expensive pair of shoes.

Endings are where we achieve our greatest successes - scientific discoveries, religious enlightenment, great novels and music and inventions.

We’re creatures of anticipation. Our next meal, our next  paycheck, our next drink or cigarette or romantic encounter. We live for something that hasn't happened while ignoring a storehouse of lessons built on old anticipations.

[2013-02-20]


c0

2 comments:

  1. Well, I guess the upside of that experience is that it suggests that you may be an optimist, and even if past anticipations may not have always lived up to expectations - you're next anticipation thrives nonetheless!!

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  2. Sometimes like a gambler that can't stop playing the slots. So much anticipation is biologically motivated.

    --c0

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