Approach-Avoidance Theater.
May. 3rd, 2004 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolven7Louis Jordan - [Beans and Corn Bread]--- Welcome to day one of The Dance That Ends, When Finals Do. You've all danced this dance, before, in some form or another, and if you don't think you have, i'll detail the steps, so you can remember:
Step 1: The Approach. Something important looms very near, and it may even be something that you're looking forward to. Perhaps you are about to graduate from a school you hate, or you're about to receive a doctorate, for your years of hard work. (Louis Armstrong - [What a Wonderful World]). Or it could simply be the end of a semester. Whatever it is, it comes closer, and you realise that you are about to Attain a Goal.
Step 2: The Unconscious Realisation. Now you're thinking, on some part of your mind, "Hmm... i'm about to hit a major transtition, in my life. That's kind of weird-feeling." (Nellie McKay - Manhattan Avenue). And that twitches, a little, on the back of your mind, beause you're leaving something you know (classes, classmates, school, single-life, student-hood, whatever), for something wholly unknown, because, no matter how much you've mentally prepared yourself, it's still New.
Step 3: The Avoidance. Now is when we learn the meaning of Poe's "Imp of the Perverse." We start doing things, subtle things, to fuck ourselves up. We don't sleep enough. We "forget" to study. We procrastinate, or over-sleep, or run away, or spend a hectic night in Vegas, desperately trying to rush back, in time to give the morning's presentation. (Kenna - [Hell Bent]). Whatever the mechanism, we start it, and this is because part of us does not want to make the coming transition, no matter how much the rest of us Does. But there is possible hope, in this whole dance, and a way to control the third step.
Step 0, or 2a: Conscious Realisation. This is where you understand something about the situation you're in. You know that you're about to hit that crucial time, where you're going to start tripping yourself up, and you acknowledge and control that tripping. (blink-182 - [I Miss You]). You buy yourself a plane ticket to Vegas, and act horribly irresponsible, or you drink yourself into a stupor, two nights before your exams, or you rant, rave, hide, but always leaving yourself a window. A Brief but clear window of time and opportunity, in which you will do these things, and still have enough time to do the things that are required of you. It's about self control, in the various facets of your life, then.
Ruby - [Tiny Meat]--- That said, i'm going to go find some way to channel this, so that it doesn't destroy the work i'm doing.
Later all.
Step 1: The Approach. Something important looms very near, and it may even be something that you're looking forward to. Perhaps you are about to graduate from a school you hate, or you're about to receive a doctorate, for your years of hard work. (Louis Armstrong - [What a Wonderful World]). Or it could simply be the end of a semester. Whatever it is, it comes closer, and you realise that you are about to Attain a Goal.
Step 2: The Unconscious Realisation. Now you're thinking, on some part of your mind, "Hmm... i'm about to hit a major transtition, in my life. That's kind of weird-feeling." (Nellie McKay - Manhattan Avenue). And that twitches, a little, on the back of your mind, beause you're leaving something you know (classes, classmates, school, single-life, student-hood, whatever), for something wholly unknown, because, no matter how much you've mentally prepared yourself, it's still New.
Step 3: The Avoidance. Now is when we learn the meaning of Poe's "Imp of the Perverse." We start doing things, subtle things, to fuck ourselves up. We don't sleep enough. We "forget" to study. We procrastinate, or over-sleep, or run away, or spend a hectic night in Vegas, desperately trying to rush back, in time to give the morning's presentation. (Kenna - [Hell Bent]). Whatever the mechanism, we start it, and this is because part of us does not want to make the coming transition, no matter how much the rest of us Does. But there is possible hope, in this whole dance, and a way to control the third step.
Step 0, or 2a: Conscious Realisation. This is where you understand something about the situation you're in. You know that you're about to hit that crucial time, where you're going to start tripping yourself up, and you acknowledge and control that tripping. (blink-182 - [I Miss You]). You buy yourself a plane ticket to Vegas, and act horribly irresponsible, or you drink yourself into a stupor, two nights before your exams, or you rant, rave, hide, but always leaving yourself a window. A Brief but clear window of time and opportunity, in which you will do these things, and still have enough time to do the things that are required of you. It's about self control, in the various facets of your life, then.
Ruby - [Tiny Meat]--- That said, i'm going to go find some way to channel this, so that it doesn't destroy the work i'm doing.
Later all.
