Billy Writes A Little

Three things i learned this week

I love to learn new things. The problem is it has always had to be on my own terms. Whenever someone has asked me to try and do something new or learn something i did not know before, i resist. Well i actually downright refuse most of the time. But when it's my own idea or i can at least think its my idea i jump in so easily, so readily. It becomes a joy, an adventure. The whole experience of it, the trial and error, the sudden realizations of knowing. Its just so awesome to me.
Now the problem arises when its all external. Work for example. God forbid i have to learn a new job at work. I feel like i want to quit work entirely, rather than learn something new. Even the most simple of new things, tears me up inside. Its not what i want to do. Its forced upon me and i can see no joy in it what so ever. Why, i don't know. It would be so much easier if i did.

But what i learned on my own this week is so cool.

One thing leads to another.
Now that may not seem like an awesome thing to learn but its true. It's oh so true.
Lets begin at the beginning. Oxytocin. A chemical secreted during labor. Thats about as beginning as it gets. It causes contractions during labor. But like i said that is just the beginning.
It also stimulates milk secretion during breast feeding. So its a pretty good bet it ends up in the breast milk. And who receives this breast milk? The child of course. What affect does it have on the child? Well studies have shown that Oxytocin promotes bonding, love and monogamy. It's released in humans when we love or are falling in love. When we feel close or trust someone strongly. It's released in orgasms and has been shown to cause erections when injected in mice.
Can you think of all the times that this one chemical has affected your choices? What this one chemical has done to change or alter your life? Not just its presence but also the lack of it in your system. What does this mean to the millions of babies that are not breastfed? How and when do they get their first experience of love if not thru breast feeding? Would it make them less close to their mothers? Less likely to love as deeply when adults? Bonding, trust, love. All chemically based on Oxytocin.

What other chemical reactions are actually what we once thought, was our own unique personality?

Lastly, i learned that a movie has actually been made that so closely resembles a theme of one of my stories, its amazing. I watched it and couldn't believe it. Its as if the script writer read one of my entries and wrote a story around it. If i was a cynical person i would be upset. But to me it's so cool. To think that someone out there had the same feeling, but after i did. I was first and thats good enough for me. I mean i just learned all that about Oxytocin. About its affects on love and bonding and sex. I wasn't the first. In all actuality Freud was the first. He just didn't realize it was all about a chemical. Instead he believed it to be all in our minds.

Three things i learned in a week... not bad. You're never too old i guess.