Miss MUFFETT With advancing maturity one may lose the ability to sleep through the night. On such occasions I often wandered to the local Waffle House for a cup of coffee until sleep could catch up. On one such occasion I found myself at the Waffle House at 2:00 in the morning. By this ungodly hour most of the party-goers, drunks, and students in this small college town had retired, and I was alone with the cook. Sitting at the counter in the middle of the restaurant, I read my book to pass the time. Through a career that required me to communicate with, understand, and guide other persons, I was deeply committed to phenomenology as the cleanest way to read and understand human behavior. A key notion of this orientation is that “All behavior is strictly determined by the perceptual field of the behaving organism.” Such a straightforward statement makes each individual fully responsible every moment for his or her own behavior. Likewise it provides a roadmap to understand other people. It explains some of the most interesting and perverse aspects of human existence, and to a large extent helps us understand ourselves as complex, creative, and thoroughly idiotic creatures. Most folks carry around large chunks of their perceptual field with them at all times. These are the person’s life experiences that include home, family, friends, work, play, church, and related individual notions. These ideas become ones more or less stable identity, a picture of oneself. They are often broadly shared with others who have had similar personal experiences, making it easy to communicate. At the same time, these personal identities are continually interacting with an external environment, whose influences may enhance or inhibit one’s personal strivings. Distractions while driving come readily to mind. On one occasion a carload of college girls with windows rolled up entered a busy city intersection. They were blind to the flashing lights and blaring siren of a fire truck that soon mauled their car. Death and severe injury was the result of their preoccupation with each other to the exclusion of their dangerous environment. Their perceptual fields were blind to their surroundings. Armed with the belief that others can be read directly, without convoluted and devious interpretations, I sat reading my book in the Waffle House. After ten minutes of complete tranquility, I noticed some shuffling behind me near the entrance. With my back to the door, I was unaware of all the details that must have been visibly apparent. A woman in her mid to late 20s came continue reading click on zxyhillarious.blogspot.in/2013/07/miss-muffett.html
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 15:28:29 +0000
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