Human nature

Lately I have been struck by how so many, if not all, human behaviors and circumstances ultimately trace back to the basic traits of human nature. The strongest of them is the instinctual drive to seek health, wealth, love, and status, all of them with the common goal of reproductive success. 

While browsing magazines at a store, I tried to look at them with the eyes of a non-human visitor, and I saw how easy it was to recognize the same theme over and over again... every single magazine cover contained at least one - but usually many more - of the basic messages, in the form of female bodies ("get more reproductive success!"), muscular men ("become a desirable reproductive partner!"), items of actual or perceived high value ("here's how to get wealth") and people of actual or perceived success ("here is how to get status"). 

Even messages of less material tone contain these themes, even though perhaps more indirectly: it is not by chance that so many of them are about the joy of parenthood and family (reproductive success),   or healthy living (health) or achievement in sports, arts or careers (status). 

What about messages that speak about contentment, acceptance, letting go, etc., that are nowadays so much in fashion?  Same thing: the idea is "less is more".... giving up something to ultimately get more of the really big stuff: health, wealth, love and status.  

Have you ever read a magazine on how to get less wealth? Or how to decrease your status? I haven't.

An italian divorce

It was exciting to hear that finally Ms. Veronica Berlusconi, wife of Italy's prime minister, has decided to file divorce. This comes on the wave of the recent scandals over Mr. Berlusconi's promoting young starlettes in his political program, and over his suspected involvement with an underage girl (who, now of age, comes out and calls him "daddy"... some people interpret it in one sense, while others notice the girl's resemblance with Berlusconi's daughters.... mah... ).

I think Ms. Berlusconi is doing the right thing, for many reasons:

now she can finally move on in her personal life, after many offenses swallowed in silence.

probably she has realized that to initiate a divorce rather than waiting for one (which was probably coming anyway) might be to her advantage.

she is doing a favor to the country: it is hoped that, in a still family-centric Italy, her exposing Berlusconi as a bad husband might damage his public image (I think it's unlikely, but I would like to see this).

She is sending a powerful message of political dissent that I hope will spread.

She is sending a message in defense of women's dignity.

I never especially liked her, especially because her complaint about her husband's not-so-saintly behavior sounds a little hypocritical, considering that he was married when she first met him... But now I admire her for finally standing up for herself.

IT and Asperger syndrome

I have read an interesting article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html) on the alarming surge of autism and Asperger's syndrome in silicon valley, leading to the hypothesis of a correlation with the influx of IT workers in the area over the past decades. The hypothesis is that the genes that lead people to excel in scientific and technical professions might produce autism or Asperger's under certain circumstances, like a reinforcement due to mating between individuals that have similar genetic predisposition to the syndrome.

Out of curiosity, I took the autism test online (I have no idea of how reliable it is). The result? 26 points, compared to an average of 16 for a sample of normal people as claimed by the website, and to 32 as the minimum of a sample of individual with autism. Mmh.....

Nothing better to do, really....

My poor mother (she is not dead... just poor) used to say that "some people have nothing better to occupy themselves with".  Nothing could be more true, in my opinion, of those who litter the news sites with totally irrelevant stuff...

Let me say it high and loud here... with all the poverty, wars and injustice in the world, 

I could not care less about who, why, what, when, and whatever else of Obama's dog.

 

Weird law?

Today Yahoo travel has an article on the weirdest laws around the world.  According to the author, one of them is the code of behavior imposed on tourists by the italian law in Venice: 

".. officials don’t appreciate tourists adding to the crowd and mess in St. Marks Square by feeding said pigeons. They also don’t want visitors sitting around shirtless, climbing into fountains, or even sitting on the sidewalk eating a sandwich."

well, why is this weird, again? There are people for whom Venice is home: they live there, work there, spend their everyday lives there just like we do in Tulsa, Kingston, Portland, etc., etc.. So, would you like to go out of your home every single day and find yourself elbowing your way to work in a crowd of happy campers eating sandwiches in the street, and feeding birds whose poop you have to clean up?  Every single day? 

Parents

Living in the US I am often struck by the contrast in attitudes between american parents and italian ones.  Here is a story:

When I was a university student, I became friends with a girl who had an insanely long and uncomfortable commute from her home to school every day. She was living with her parents, which is the common arrangement in Italy, unless the distance to the nearest university makes commuting impossible.  

My friend was a well performing student, to our amazement, considering how much time and energy she had to spend in transportation.  However, after about three years of this arrangement, as the demands of courses became stronger, she started to feel tired and to wish she could live closer to school.  She did what pretty much any american college student would do: find a dorm or room for rent and find a part-time job to pay for it. 

When finally all was arranged, she proudly announced the plan to her parents. Only to see her mother say, with teary eyes: "So, do you want to leave us? What have we done wrong?". 

Any american parent would have jumped with enthusiasm at the idea of not having to pay for the accommodation and having finally the freedom of a home all for themselves, not to speak of all the fun that a couple can have when the children are finally out of the house. They would have patted the girl on the back and approved her initiative with pride, thinking that finally that evening community college class, "how to encourage your teen to leave home" (and my friend was 23!!) had paid off. 

Well, things are different in the boot-shaped country of sun, sea, pizzas and mammas.  My friend internalized her disappointment (yeah, I am big on internalizing these days.. see previous post) and waited for the only parent-approved chance to leave home: getting married. Which she did, as soon as she could, and was happy ever after, with a nice husband and bike-friendly commute to work.

Now that I have lived on my own for about a decade, I still see that look on my mother, that says: "What have I done to you to deserve this?". Things are different in the boot-shaped country.... 

Tricks of the mind

Today I had a very interesting experience about memory...

I was quietly reading in a park (I was reading about how to stop suppressing my anger, but that's another story) when a song popped up in my mind out of nowhere.. it is a song of my childhood,"The ladybug",  that I used to sing when I was 7-8 years old in music class.  It just came up like that, with all the lyrics at the right place, too.  I had completely forgotten about it and I could not have possibly remembered it if I wanted to.

Amazing... 

People come, people leave....

I am kind of sad because my friend ztraffer is going to sail away... It's a time of change, for sure.. who knows what will be of us a year from now?