Balance

If it wasn’t for me writing this, you wouldn’t be reading it. “Yeah, but if it wasn’t for me reading it, you wouldn’t be writing it.” I’m afraid that doesn’t really make sense. For one thing, I’ve no idea if you’re a reading it or not, though if you really are intent on balancing things out here, you could maybe say instead, “Whatever about you writing it, if it wasn’t for me reading it, well then I wouldn’t be reading it.” You could even say it with a defiant look, regardless though of whether I see the look or not. But even without seeing it I’d still detect the tone. I might pretend I didn’t notice it, that I was innocently lost in this interesting and disinterested intellectual exchange we were supposedly having, but in truth of course I’d be all too aware of it, and underneath the surface I’d probably be looking to re-assert myself the moment I’d see an opening. Though of course it would be done very innocently. 

But why all this wrestling for dominance? Maybe we can’t help ourselves. This assertion of ourselves goes too deep, and if somehow we haven’t been asserting it healthily, then it gets buried and tries to assert itself unhealthily. It’s been presumably defeated, forced underground, and now it needs victories to re-balance things. I don’t think I can go any further without things getting very dull, so we’ll leave it at that and call it a draw! We have perfectly equally asserted ourselves, and no one is humiliated. “But that means no one has achieved victory! That’s humiliating for everyone!” No, no, we must somehow get beyond this kind of stuff.