Basics

So, lets start at the beginning.

I'm going to take a clear position here and say that we, as people, have evolved from parts of many things that came before us. Billions of years ago the slime led to the cells that led to the slightly more complex. Millions of years ago creatures were breathing and moving, and long, long after that, things, somewhat like us, were walking around in groups, chasing down things to kill and eat. One to two million years later, here we are writing blogs.

What all of these creatures have in common, the basics, that we all need, are three things. We need protection from those things that would destroy us, whether they want to eat us, or are just stumbling by and trample us. We need some kind of nourisment to keep us alive and going, and we need some way to reproduce and to try and ensure that our offspring survive.

That's it. That's what we all do. That's what it is all about. It's true of plants. It's true for worms. It's true for ducks and it's true of Sunday School teachers and professional quarterbacks who may have gotten their girlfriends pregnant before the more beautiful model came along.

Everything else we do is really a variation on one of those three themes. We build houses for protection. We work to get food. We fall in love to have sex and make babies. Now, not every member of the species does everything to keep the species going. Some saplings get sucked into the river; some turtles get eaten by sea gulls. Also some couple now are gay, and they don't directly have too many children, but there are also ways around that.

Even basketball is a sport, and sport is a derivative of war, which comes from the protection of the tribe and its resources.

All of our emotions relate to those three things: Anger and anxiety are for protection; satisfaction and pride relate to nourishment and lust and love help with reproduction.

Reason, when we use it, can help us meet all of these needs, but reason isn't always necessary, and many people don't depend upon to any great extent.

Reason, thought, planning, insight and reflection are all very useful in the process of psychotherapy. But psychotherapy doesn't work for everyone.

So, that's the starting point. It may be a bit of an over-simplification, but not that much. Soon I will continue showing how this relates to why so many of the people I see continue to suffer with those they have loved.

AND I'm not at all against country music. I think it offers real insights with simple chord progressions.

Oprah and her "energy fields" are more than a bit much.