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How Sweet It Is, Cutie!
You ever get that thing with someone you adore? That love rush when you’re so overcome with affection you could eat them!? Not really, but kinda?
I know I have. I hesitate to think where I'd be without an adequate amount of self-restraint.
It’s a real phenomenon. It’s called cute aggression, a kind of dimorphous expression. You get an extremely positive experience that generates both positive expressions and negative ones.
In the end, it’s a way to balance - or regulate - our emotions.
I don’t think it works in the opposite direction, though. Where an extremely negative experience generates both negative and positive expressions.
This week, the fires in NorCal hit too close to home. My brothers-in-law are threatened with, or actually fighting, fire. I know people who’ve lost relatives and homes. And even though I’m 45 miles south, I’ve had headaches for a couple days from the smoke-filled air.
It’s hard to imagine someone shouting at the wildfires, “These fires have caused so much pain and loss and I absolutely I love it!”
Dimorphous expressions seem better suited for positive experiences.
Perhaps that’s something to be celebrated.
But if I may offer, when you kiss your loved ones and start to feel hunger pangs, reach for something less human.
Smacking the Sweet Tooth of Surprise,
Sean
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