We discussed monogamy for a while. How it was a lovely, uncomplicated idea, but so unnatural. A prophylactic devoutly to be wished these days, a handy political tool, the way it keeps people settled and preoccupied. But a doomed notion. Even in Darwinian terms. A man wants to spread his genes around as much as he can. A woman needs as many protectors and sustainers as she can get. Judi told me that a female baboon will copulate with every male in her group except for her sons. With the paternity in question, no male hurts the babies. We said enough to calm ourselves, to placate our consciences. I mean, we believed what we said. We just didn't say a whole lot. Not a word about emotion.(you know. because of the baboons.)
-John Dufresne, Love Warps the Mind a Little
Sunday, April 18, 2010
not one word
sometimes, someone lends you a book, with a casual statement like "oh, this made me think of you. let me know if you get around to reading it," and then you finally do on some hormonally charged gray lifeless day a couple months later, and for a while think really? this made her think of me? and then you get to a passage that feels like a punch in the stomach and you think oh. that's why.
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4 comments:
ha! i love you.
erica, baboons do not remind me of you. the moose rut seems more accurate. sorry, couldn't resist.
erica, i stumbled across your writings while looking for some words by gary snyder -- it wasn't what i was searching for, but was nevertheless delightful to find instead an homage to ellen meloy (!) and other wandering thoughts. i felt it wouldn't be fair to have read your posts and said nothing, so thought i'd let you know.
thanks for reading, kate! glad you enjoyed it--and good luck finding the gary snyder quote you were searching for. i might be able to help out, if you're having a hard time finding it--there are a lot of snyder citations stored away in my brain :-)
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