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| TaoMan1121 (profile) wrote, on 8-16-2004 at 10:10am | |
| Current mood: taken in Music: the fountains of the Wyoming Public Library Subject: You Can't Go Home Again |
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| I think there's a lot of bittersweet irony in the following paradox that I think we all encounter at some point: There's this fresh and novel stimulus (yes, I realize I've used that word in like 5 of my last 6 enteries, but I'm a behavior analyst... just imagine how we talk when you get five of us in a room...) Anyway, this stimulus could be a new surrounding or even a person, and you begin to have positive experiences with this thing or place, and as a result of that positive reinforcement, you seek out that stimulus more and more, but the problem with turning to it too regularly is that you inevitably become satiated, or full, of said stimulus. Best example I can think of is my job at Studio 28. I grew up wiith that establishment being a backyard safe haven, and I would enjoy being in the place just as must, if not more, than the actual movie itself. So I did what any normal person would do when they turned of age; I applied for a job there. After working there for a bit, things changed. I saw the inner-workings of the place and I was there much more than I had been previously. You just simply get used to it. If the stimulus remains as reinforcing as it was initially, you're lucky enough to have a very safe and steadfast outlet when you need it (see a loving partner or a supportive parent). Don't get me wrong, my job at Studio was the best I've had so far in my life, but things changed, and I carried on my love and loyalty to the place because I had achieved a completely new set of memories, albiet under very different circumstances. My whole point for this was I'm at the Wyoming Library right now, writing this up. This place has an even stronger reinforcement history than Studio... and I just discovered a novel stimulus in an old friend. Grabbing a muffin and an OJ and sitting down with my new laptop in the cafe they have here, the one I never took the time to check out... it was just a harmonious balance of a fresh and extremely reinforcing experience intergrated into an old and familiar one. Long story short, I had a moment. |
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polishpimping | 08-16-04 5:55pm Wow... I'm glad you summerized that for us...
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