I'm not really sure where the essay below came from. I think it may have been written by Butler. But I found it on my computer so thought I'd post it even though it's kind of dry and boring.
House Odors and the End of the Human Race
Sometimes I walk into a house and the first thing I notice is the smell. Not always a bad smell. Maybe it is scented candles or cooking chicken. Or Lysol. Or maybe the nose wrinkles up at bit at something. The inefficiently cleaned cat litter box.
Whatever it is, within 30 minutes, I don’t notice it at all! My sense of smell has normalized the new smell completely. It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are.
Three weeks ago, Roxie the Rottweiler bounded into my life, 100 pounds of muscle, poop, pee; chewing, licking, and crashing through furniture like a playful bulldozer. I thought to myself, “Holy crap! My life is going to be disrupted forever!”
Yesterday, I got home from work and hardly noticed her. Our new routines had become, well, routine. It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are.
Working in the drug and alcohol treatment field, I often see the most bizarre and dysfunctional family relationships. And it is hard to believe, but these families really think it is normal – whatever normal is – or maybe they admit to having just a tiny little problem.
As a recovering alcoholic, I remember and can understand how it got that way. My Dad was an alcoholic too and in his worst drinking days, I remember seeing him drink my stepmother’s perfume! That was really bizarre!!! And when I tasted my first beer, I knew I would never ever be anything like him.
But it is a very gradual descent into insanity and each small change is hardly noticeable and my mantra was: “Well, if I ever get that bad, I’ll stop.” I was still saying that and thinking my life was reasonably normal when I was hiding my rum bottles in the trash, routinely throwing up every morning, and driving down the expressway with my right hand covering my right eye because if I opened both eyes, it was hard to drive because I was seeing double. It’s amazing I didn’t kill someone. But I truly believed that I was basically all right. It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are.
I figure that regardless of whether it is God’s creation or evolution, adapting to change is the primary technique of survival, and human beings are masters of it. That’s why our species has diversified and we can populate and thrive in all climates from the Himalayas to the Sahara. We have multiplied and inherited the Earth. Sort of like viruses, cockroaches, rodents and other highly adaptable life forms.
But over time, we also become comfortable accepting other things as routine – like cruelty, greed, and violence. Television helps, not to mention the Internet.
Growing up with Father Knows Best, Archie Bunker, Leave it to Beaver, The Jeffersons…I would have been shocked if I had turned on the tube and suddenly saw some of the reality TV and police dramas today. Even America’s Funniest Home Videos, where we laugh at kids falling off bicycles. Now we carry cel phones with cameras in hopes of catching something awful and posting it on Utube. Remember the cell phone video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging?
But I watched it. Several times actually.
At 63, I find myself so jaded about everything that nothing shocks me any more. I’m a man of the world. I am, like Jimi Hendrix, “experienced.” I can crack jokes about anything.
I’m not sure all that kind of evolutionary adaptation is much of an achievement. Like drug addiction, we crave more and more of it. Hey! A mushroom cloud! Where’s the cell phone?
It would be nice if there was a way to go back and find innocence again. But how does one go about doing that? And if I could, would I want to? I’m afraid it might be boring? It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are, but would I really be able to give up watching the 6:00 o’clock news?
Maybe the evolutionary skill of adaptation only works on facing challenges. Maybe it is harder to adapt to simple peaceful existence.
Just thinking…
Maybe Nero fiddled while Rome burned because his nose had become so accustomed to smoke he didn’t notice it anymore.
Whatever it is, within 30 minutes, I don’t notice it at all! My sense of smell has normalized the new smell completely. It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are.
Three weeks ago, Roxie the Rottweiler bounded into my life, 100 pounds of muscle, poop, pee; chewing, licking, and crashing through furniture like a playful bulldozer. I thought to myself, “Holy crap! My life is going to be disrupted forever!”
Yesterday, I got home from work and hardly noticed her. Our new routines had become, well, routine. It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are.
Working in the drug and alcohol treatment field, I often see the most bizarre and dysfunctional family relationships. And it is hard to believe, but these families really think it is normal – whatever normal is – or maybe they admit to having just a tiny little problem.
As a recovering alcoholic, I remember and can understand how it got that way. My Dad was an alcoholic too and in his worst drinking days, I remember seeing him drink my stepmother’s perfume! That was really bizarre!!! And when I tasted my first beer, I knew I would never ever be anything like him.
But it is a very gradual descent into insanity and each small change is hardly noticeable and my mantra was: “Well, if I ever get that bad, I’ll stop.” I was still saying that and thinking my life was reasonably normal when I was hiding my rum bottles in the trash, routinely throwing up every morning, and driving down the expressway with my right hand covering my right eye because if I opened both eyes, it was hard to drive because I was seeing double. It’s amazing I didn’t kill someone. But I truly believed that I was basically all right. It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are.
I figure that regardless of whether it is God’s creation or evolution, adapting to change is the primary technique of survival, and human beings are masters of it. That’s why our species has diversified and we can populate and thrive in all climates from the Himalayas to the Sahara. We have multiplied and inherited the Earth. Sort of like viruses, cockroaches, rodents and other highly adaptable life forms.
But over time, we also become comfortable accepting other things as routine – like cruelty, greed, and violence. Television helps, not to mention the Internet.
Growing up with Father Knows Best, Archie Bunker, Leave it to Beaver, The Jeffersons…I would have been shocked if I had turned on the tube and suddenly saw some of the reality TV and police dramas today. Even America’s Funniest Home Videos, where we laugh at kids falling off bicycles. Now we carry cel phones with cameras in hopes of catching something awful and posting it on Utube. Remember the cell phone video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging?
But I watched it. Several times actually.
At 63, I find myself so jaded about everything that nothing shocks me any more. I’m a man of the world. I am, like Jimi Hendrix, “experienced.” I can crack jokes about anything.
I’m not sure all that kind of evolutionary adaptation is much of an achievement. Like drug addiction, we crave more and more of it. Hey! A mushroom cloud! Where’s the cell phone?
It would be nice if there was a way to go back and find innocence again. But how does one go about doing that? And if I could, would I want to? I’m afraid it might be boring? It’s amazing how adaptable we humans are, but would I really be able to give up watching the 6:00 o’clock news?
Maybe the evolutionary skill of adaptation only works on facing challenges. Maybe it is harder to adapt to simple peaceful existence.
Just thinking…
Maybe Nero fiddled while Rome burned because his nose had become so accustomed to smoke he didn’t notice it anymore.
