The second, and much more enticing force, is love. I use the term love in an all-encompassing kinda way. Love might be phrased, more explicitly, as unwavering and overwhelming acceptance, appreciation and good will. Although love can take other forms such as Eros or romantic, sexual love, I'm primarily focusing on the Agape version. Agape has been defined as "divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional and thoughtful love." A mother's love falls under this category. Not easy to come by. When you have it, hang on to it and cherish it. When you don't have it, keep looking and don't give up. It's that important. So much of what we do is in response to, in quest of, in reaction toward, this powerful force. As the old adage goes, we do crazy things for Love.
The third force could probably be best summarized as the force of Stasis. I think of this as the continual search for balance and comfort; the status quo maintained. This is about satisfying our instinctual needs and basic desires. Food and shelter would qualify as aspects of this Stasis. We want to survive and need creature comforts to do so. I think Stasis has gotten us into a lot of trouble. As humans we often reach Stasis and have all of our physical concerns taken care of. This is where the other two forces kick in. Whether it is at the urging of Fear or Love, we get greedy. We want more. We get more. Suddenly, our Stasis is thrown off kilter. We are over indexing on plush, easy, carefree, glittery, new and better when we really didn't even need or want anything else in the first place. When this happens, Stasis is lost. In the immortal words of Britney Speers, "Oops, I did it again."
So why all the reflections on these invisible yet important forces? Perhaps it is on my mind because I spent a lot of time out of Stasis this weekend attending various fairs and festivals with friends and family. First up was a trip to the state fair -- the great Minnesota Get Together. Upon entering the gates, me and my band of hungry foot soldiers cut a swathe of feverish gorging on bad-for-you, deep fried, stick enhanced, fantastically carnivorous delightfulness. It was a never ending feast. We left an array of empty cups, dirty napkins and greasy wrappers in our wake.
The next day found us doing similar damage at the Renaissance Festival. Although somewhat more subdued, the Ye-Old event ignited more encounters with jumbo smoked turkey legs, bread bowl chowders, cream puffs, pickles and mead (not necessarily in that order and not all consumed by moi). Yes, I drank mead -- it's a rather tasty beverage made from fermented honey. Who knew? Well, all this consuming made me stop and consider what it was all about. Sure, the motivation was to have fun, spend some time in the sunshine enjoying the last, fading glory of summer, share some laughs with my sister, brother-in-law, little bro and hubby.
This is the third year that Mr. Oz and I attended the state fair. The fair was the scene of our memorable third date so it's become a tradition of sorts. There's nostalgia, entertainment, the lure of people watching . . . all of these are fine reasons. When in Rome, one has a need to experience Rome in all its sensorial glory; soaking it in, tasting its salty, sweet, bitter and briny wonder. But, what about my theory of fear, love and stasis as forces behind everything we do? Well, I think for me, my Stasis jumped completely out of whack. I've taken it too far. I'm in too deep. What I haven't quite figured out yet is whether Fear or Love is to blame for my actions. What hole am I trying to fill? What am I trying to outrun? I need to regain my sense of Stasis and get back into balance, stat.
Cleansing, healing, calming, re-centering are words and deeds I must become intimately familar with. Sounds a little too "Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts," perhaps. Sometimes a corn dog is a symbol of fear, a sign of self loathing, a lack of appreciation and a profound imbalance. Sometimes, just sometimes, a corn dog is just a corn dog.
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