The Sunmachine is Coming Down

:o


-My Plans-

* Christmas Eve - The Serotonin Santa Sleigh-ride -
My brain runs pretty intensely, I read a pop psychology piece that said 'introverts run on acetylcholine, extroverts of dopamine' and that seemed an apt neuro-metaphor. The three basic neurotransmitter are dopamine (cocaine drive), serotonin (alcohol sentimentality) and acetylcholine (nicotine focus), or, gasoline, breaks and spark-plug. My brain is a massive spark-plug that has little time for the grubby everyday world of dopamine & serotonin.

This might sound weird but my basic sympathy with Buddhism is our hatred of dopamine. We are engaged in a fight with our own dopamine drives. Serotonin sentimentality is no better, sloppy and irrational, sentimentality is what occurs in place of real emotion. When we act sentimentally, it is because we can access or express our truer feelings. You see this often in nationalism or "love" (of kids, pets, partners, parents) as our culture runs on it. Or to quote 'A Very British Coup': "Sordid sentimental & sick souvenirs is the cement of the structure" The Anglo-American global empire is very driven, very sentimental. The slave-driver whip in one hand, and the bottle of rum in the other.

In order to balance my acetylcholine brain, on Christmas Eve I imbide the potent serotonin soup of alcohol and Xmas-themed TV shows to partake of human sentiment, tears and feelings of good-will. Rather than fight the melancholy with intensity, embrace the world in a haze colored with the still bright Christmas lights of serotonin. All of which is a fancy way of saying I'm getting drunk and blurry-eyed watching my favorite shows, and forcing myself back into the "grubby everyday world". If the bizarro capitalist ritual of Xmas are wearing you thin, ride Santa's Serotonin Sleigh.

Be it ever so humble - the traditions were maintained...