I've given them up — relationships, that is. It was an easy sacrifice, a somewhat enforced decision. To be frank, no one has exhibited a romantic interest in me for some time now. One of my best friends says that it stems from the fact that I represent too many "a" words. Another of my friends concurs, but she's notorious for using too many prepositions, so where does that leave me? But celibacy spares me a lot of time, energy, and brain cells.
Don't get me wrong. I like sex just as much, if not more, than anyone I know. But even I know that it's the Great Muddler of human existence. Abstination may frame the nerves, but it does wonders for clearing the head.So my attention is directed towards molding my personal reality.
You may have surmised by now that I'm somewhat obsessed with reality (incidentally, it's raining again). I'm certain that this has a great deal of psychological significance. But it's like the rain — I don't know how to interpret it.
I've always been fascinated with the way other people live their lives. Most seem to strive to fit the mystical "norm." Normal doesn't exist, of course, but the masses relate better to "normal" than they do to themselves. Taking that peculiar configuration of six letters away from them would recreate the mass suicides of the stock market crash of 1929.
Picture, if you will, Walter Cronkite closing the six-thirty news:
"And finally tonight ... it was announced today by the U.S. Bureau of Standards that the concept of normal will cease to exist at midnight tonight.
And that's the way it will be."
Immediate panic would erupt. The entire psychiatric industry is declared obsolete. Thousands of institutions become unnecessary. People who counted upon the concept of normalcy to reinforce their unimaginative existences are left without the bedrock of their lives. A spiritual earthquake of monumental proportions.
Indulge me. We return once more to the realm of reality. I will attempt to explain it as I perceive it. It is at once limited and boundless. It is governed solely by the body and the mind.
The body sets limits for some, but for most, it is the mind which draws their boundaries. These are the fundamental elements of reality, contrary to the theory held by many that reality is governed by environment. It is not.
Once these tenets are accepted, it is possible to modify one's parameters at will. Minor adjustments will doubtless need to be made for environment: it is a consideration. But it is not the governing factor, simply a contributory one.
