by Caitlin Johnstone

This poem reminds me of Goethe’s “Selige Sehnsucht”, which I transcribed into ids and made a post of a long time ago. But Johnstone is no Goethe. This poem caught my interest because of its characterization of habit as the “opposite of life”. I had been doing some ideographic thinking about “habit” recently. (My id for “habit” is explained in my recent post on “always”.) Habit is of course not the opposite of life, but a double-edged sword. Bad habits are a scourge and enemy, but good habits can be a tremendous tool and strength, consciously chosen, positive elements character, achievements that one works to establish. When I was in high school in the 60s I read a book by John Dewey that considered life in terms of habit.

As for the theme of being more alive, though literary and philosophical approaches are not without their value, Dr. Ray Peat’s idea of improving human consciousness and aliveness through improving cellular metabolism has, I think, more to be said for it (Raypeat.com, raypeatforum.com). In his approach, the real enemy is not habit but PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids–basically vegetable oils).