Saturday, April 12, 2008

Laws of Imbalance Attraction

Have you ever wondered why, when meeting a person either for the first or hundredth time, you seem to be attracted to some while appalled by others?

Have you ever met a person, who you immediately felt like you’d known this person for your whole life, and become instant long-lost siblings you never had? And who, you knew, could never cross that line to become your lovers? On the other hand, there are people whose very presence in the same room could send you all jittery inside and whose closer proximity to you seem to recede the rest – people and surrounding alike – into that distant space and time which no longer matter for your current state of being.

Scientists have indeed inquire into these questions of human chemistry, presently and precariously concluding that the rules of attraction has something to do with our senses – vision and smell are the two more affecting ones. The same article said that our attractions have something to do with the symmetry of a person’s genes that find their matches inside the other person’s body through our animal instinct, so to speak.

But it doesn’t explain why there could be imbalance attraction between two people. What I mean is, I’m sure you’ve been in circumstances where you are attracted to some people but they seem to remotely or even blatantly distant to you, when others are obviously attracted to you but you don’t necessarily hold the equivalent feeling? Surely it’s not just chemistry, but what other factors are playing? And don't tell me it's fate! :)

Thursday, April 03, 2008

On Age

In memoriam, 1999:

A man’s age is something that creates an impression. It is the epitome of his whole life. It has accrued slowly, the maturity that is his alone. It has come together in the teeth of all the obstacles conquered, the grave illnesses overcome, the pains that flesh is heir to, the despairs surmounted and the risks courted, of most of which he knew nothing at the time. It has come about by way of so many desires, hopes, regrets, forgettings, love.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Letter to a Hostage, in The Little Prince (1995: 112)