Wednesday, December 21, 2005

oedipus complex

i admit i always thought the idea of a freudian oedipus complex was quite weird and gross even. but i was reading about it in new mexico in Peck's book "The Road Less Traveled and Beyond" and he relates it to wanting something/someone we can't have. that really struck a chord in me and i had never ever heard it related in that way. i love learning new things. it's only when we learn things about ourselves that we can change them.

i learned something cool from one of my nature writing students that has me fascinated - that in new england the squirrels used to be so abundant as they fed on vast quantities of chestnuts they would travel in packs. i don't know why but i find that so interesting to picture these roving bands of squirrels. I even told my kids about it. i mean squirrels are pretty abundant now, but can you imagine a forest packed with them in such great quantities like the buffalo or the passenger pigeon? i mean they may not have been quite THAT abundant but still. its just something i had never heard, i just get to thinking how much we humans have screwed up this land of plenty i can just imagine what it was like when european settlers first arrived - the bounteous wildlife they encountered! it breaks my heart it will not ever go back, because we have just used up too much land to ever get it back that way

3 comments:

Sus said...

*ROFLMAO* I can just see it now on the evening news: "Late Breaking News; A band of roving squirrels has just been spotted crossing over Central Ave. It looks like their headed to the Frontier Restaurant folks. Stay away from the Frontier people! We don't know what the squirrels intentions are!!"

David said...

I often feel the same way when I think how things might have been before Europeans arived.

But hey, I have to keep an optimistic attitude that although things will never be as the were, we still have the oportunity to make the biosphere better if we set our minds and hearts to it.

David said...

Lest I forget, Merry Christmas Wendee.