obsessive handwashing (photo: Lasklintwallmalmquvist) |
There's a liturgical element to routine. Waking up each day, repeating even basic ones like the three S’s has the quality of prayer. Inevitably some degree of magical thinking is involved. When you don’t restate your commitment, it’s as if you’ve sinned. An imagined nest of vipers threatens to be unleashed the minute you attempt to free yourself. You'll have an Adamic fall. Of course, there are those whose compulsions find other outlets. If you're constantly inebriated and full of yourself, you're unlikely to worship at the altar of repetition. But even those who forswear the obvious mantras tend to be creatures of habit. Most psychohistories reveal, there’s even a predictability within seeming irregularity. For instance, reason and human ingenuity were recently employed to break the code of the famed Zodiac killer ("I've Cracked Zodiac, a French Engineer Says. Online Sleuths Skeptical," NYT, 6/22/21). The plan might not be obvious, but ultimately one discovers a method in the madness.
Read "Sh*t or Get Off the Pot" by Francis Levy, HuffPost
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