Insidious Adaptation

The evening, a time at the end of a work day. Nothing significant, only another day at work, neither "good" nor "bad." Sometimes, after work, my mood is organically upbeat, not stimulated by some "good idea" or caffeine. Rather, I have my moments where things are good and I like those moments. Sometimes, however the night seems dreary, a continuation of the work day, despite my best efforts to see otherwise. Some days after work be like... The mind racing, thinking and interpreting things a certain way, a way that interferes sometimes, enhances others, but overall has to be accepted as "the hand I was dealt." I like quotes, for they encompass something I might never have captured. I quote people because then it takes some of the stress off of me to explain, after all, someone else more prominent wrote it, so there it is. The mind likes concrete concepts. Unfortunately, life is not concrete. Life isn't even as solid as Jell-O.  Life ...

When I was in college I wet the bed one time. There, I said it. What'd I learn from it? Well, nothing. It was a thing, it happened, I felt embarrassed and hid my soiled sheets from my roommate. I did laundry early that morning for fear of a smell occurring. "I just felt like doing some laundry." My response to an 8AM question of why I was up so early. Embarrassing things happen all the time. To some of us that threshold is much lower than others. Some people seem to be able to walk around with a ripped crotch as though their shirt is simply untucked. Others, the wind blows their hair in the wrong direction (against the natural lie) and all day they feel people are staring at their "bird's nest." What is it about this threshold that when passed we cannot do much else besides think of what this will mean? Why does embarrassment serve us the way it does? Why must we experience what I can closely relate as pain from the humiliation we encounter at so...