Why?

Unless you are a practiced soothsayer it's not always easy to predict when a philosophical mood will draw its curtains around you, obscuring looming predicaments and gripes to allow room for a perspective that includes the bigger picture.

Ah, perspective; to sit back and ponder the human condition (which is far more enjoyable to do with a glass of wine, but virtually impossible to do after too much of it). If you are one of the cerebrally gifted who can sustain a chain of logical leaps that lead you closer to a greater understanding of why we mortals exist, our contradictions, our predicaments, then I congratulate you. Compared to you I have the attention span of a gnat.

Despite possessing a sustained focus analogous to that of a gnat, I am still prone to introspection -- when I'm not reading celebrity gossip blogs or writing snarky text messages. I do occasionally fall prey to examining some of the (shallower) profundities of life.

Sometimes to know something is not necessarily to understand it. But, sometimes I genuinely want to understand. However, it's the smaller fish I like to fry. So, in the quest for greater understanding I start with: Why?

• What makes cotton candy so alluring? My enchantment with the stuff hasn't exactly been broken in two by adulthood. Why are people like me always eager to pony up for a chance to savor a cone topped by a pink sphere of spun sugar that tastes like sweet carpet?
  
  
• Why is the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers so addictive? These aren't masterpieces of literature, not by a long shot, and chock-full of an insane degree of melodrama (that leaves me wanting more!). But, let's be honest: Edward Cullen, in all his chiseled vampire pulchritude, is really freaking appealing -- irrespective of your birth date. And I should know, because he appeals to me (I'm working through the shame). It's not lost on me that, at my age, I could be a tween's mother.
  
  
• I've been keeping tabs on the grave turn of events in Pakistan between the Taliban and the government, and this leads me to ask: Why is violence and strife such an ingrained component of the human condition? Why do we genuinely say "let there be peace on Earth" but not seriously and actively pursue it? Is power such an intoxicant to both elected and self-appointed leaders that it automatically neutralizes peaceful intentions?
  
  
• Is it possible to lose brain cells after too many plastic surgery procedures, or is it that one must have already lost a critical mass of brain cells prior to a marathon of plastic surgery procedures? Is this what happened to Nancy Pelosi?
  
  
• What is it about floating in a body of salt water that leeches stress out of one's musculature, and pauses the spastic hum of daily living if only temporarily? And as a P.S., why is peeing in the ocean so much fun?
  
  
• Why won't Dick Cheney retire his masterfully misguided speeches and paranoidal theories to focus on enjoying his remaining years on his ranch, (thereby) restricting his wake of destruction to shooting game (and expendable hunting companions)? Paranoia is a massive energy drain; if I were him I would be so tired.
  

Dick, this one's for you:

Help I'm Alive - Metric