In today's tightening grip of mass disgust and despair, it's necessary more than ever to remember all those random acts of love and kindness. They're really far more frequent than the over-reported acts of war and violence. And yet, this morning's kindness ironically arrived here in the form of some surprising data on pornography in America...!
The kindness was the way some anonymous neighbor took the time to gather up my morning newspapers from the front lawn and gently tucked them into my front doorway. That has to start your day feeling there's still something decent about the human species. But then -- scanning through the pre-requisite number of funereal recessionary headlines -- you come across this chart about our top ten porn-buying states. You figure you'll find those free-living, free-loving blue states like New York and Washington. But you figure wrong.
In a current Harvard University study, the dubious honor of first place went to Utah. Utah....? The state that's home to the great Mormon Church with its strict adherence to biblical values? The state where most people agreed with the survey statement, "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage?" The state which consistently votes Republican and righteously opposes gay-marriage?
The answer is a saucy yes, for Utah boasts the highest porn-buying rate in the country. But here's the question that goes with that answer. Why? In heaven's name, why?
The author of Harvard's study, Benjamin Edelman, explained his conclusion in the latest edition of New Scientist. "One natural hypothesis is something like repression -- if you're told you can't have this, then you want it more."
Funny, but that has a familiar ring. As in Adam and Eve being given all the riches of Paradise with only one restriction. We all know how that story turned out. Again and again and again throughout history. Seems like our species, so prone to random acts of kindness, can resist everything but temptation!
This contradiction has spawned religions like Zoroastrianism in which there are twin gods of good and of evil, to John Calvin's doctrine of pre-destination, to today's cool crowd practicing an existential catechism that anything goes.
Take your pick. Personally, I still marvel at the way people kindly defer to the handicapped, and instantly to the ambulance. Small moments in which to take some large pride in our humanity. We are, after all, all stuck together on this same tiny troubled planet. And yet, if the human race is to keep surviving its own self-inflicted traumas and idiocies, the small seed of kindness planted in our soul needs a lot more watering..
In a current Harvard University study, the dubious honor of first place went to Utah. Utah....? The state that's home to the great Mormon Church with its strict adherence to biblical values? The state where most people agreed with the survey statement, "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage?" The state which consistently votes Republican and righteously opposes gay-marriage?
The answer is a saucy yes, for Utah boasts the highest porn-buying rate in the country. But here's the question that goes with that answer. Why? In heaven's name, why?
The author of Harvard's study, Benjamin Edelman, explained his conclusion in the latest edition of New Scientist. "One natural hypothesis is something like repression -- if you're told you can't have this, then you want it more."
Funny, but that has a familiar ring. As in Adam and Eve being given all the riches of Paradise with only one restriction. We all know how that story turned out. Again and again and again throughout history. Seems like our species, so prone to random acts of kindness, can resist everything but temptation!
This contradiction has spawned religions like Zoroastrianism in which there are twin gods of good and of evil, to John Calvin's doctrine of pre-destination, to today's cool crowd practicing an existential catechism that anything goes.
Take your pick. Personally, I still marvel at the way people kindly defer to the handicapped, and instantly to the ambulance. Small moments in which to take some large pride in our humanity. We are, after all, all stuck together on this same tiny troubled planet. And yet, if the human race is to keep surviving its own self-inflicted traumas and idiocies, the small seed of kindness planted in our soul needs a lot more watering..
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