“Seek and you shall find” is no guarantee with an explanation attached. Scientists the world over can confirm as much. Seeking leads to attempts — experiments, in other words — but the result is rarely clear. Or even timely to find.
“I made an attempt!” is often read by society as a sign of weakness.
Why is that?
After all, someone has gone to the trouble — often put some money on the line — and stepped into unknown territory. Risk is always included.
So what about all the non-attempters of this world?
The people who won’t even consider engaging in an attempt? Experimenting, testing, trying things out, and finally the attempt to get to the bottom of something or to realise a plan.
How exciting is that?
I admire people who get caught, again and again, in the act of attempting. Entrepreneurs attempt to keep their business successful.
Politicians attempt to keep the promises they made during the election even after it’s over.
Admirable.
Oh, and what about evolution?
It’s made up of nothing but attempts — and has been for billions of years.
Is that held against it as a weakness?
Evolution doesn’t know what it’s doing.
Exactly. That’s why it’s busy attempting things 24/7.
Admirable.
At some point, a resourceful mind — or a man of the cloth — turned to the next stage in the evolution of the attempt: temptation.
Suddenly the carousel of moods spins in a different direction.
Now at least two poles stand opposed.
Temptation on one side, giving in on the other. Over time, variations of temptation came onto the market of vanities.
Terms like allure, with its own claim to leadership.
Because the meaning reveals that nobody voluntarily pursues a temptation in order to succumb to it.
Oh no.
The poor human is lured and led toward temptation.
How treacherous is that?
And this is exactly where the immune system — if one has it — gets put through the wringer. How is an untrained person in the temptation business supposed to resist without any training?
Temptation is cunningly programmed and knows its way around cravings and allurements better than anyone.
Where’s the handbook on temptation when you need it?
Surely it would contain precise guidelines on how a person can or should deal with the thing.
Oh yes, morality also has a hand in it. Eroticism and greed, naturally.
A veritable package of pleasures, which, according to the instructions, must be parried.
At least that’s the tenor of the moralists and theologians. And of the justice system.
How did that go again, with the two opposing figures on the shoulder?
Both whisper into the ear of the shoulder’s owner about what he or she should decide next. Or ought to.
Both operate at a highly professional rhetorical level.
And the figure in between is you. Is me. Is all of us.
Dilemma, get thee behind me!
OK. I like temptations, because they’re part of the human fitness program.
And the decisions challenge mind and body alike.
I like that.
Because that way, at least, I have a part of my daily workout ahead of me.
Work it out!
