[1]A few days after posting The Benefit of Awe [2], I decided to get in touch with Dr. Helen Fisher [3], biological anthropologist and “Chief Scientific Advisor” to Chemistry.com to learn more about her point of view. Here’s our unedited email exchange:
Hi Dr. Fisher,
I heard you speaking on Larry Mantle’s show on KPCC yesterday morning. And it really surprised me to hear you use the term “life’s greatest prize,” when referring to finding an appropriate mate.I looked online at a number of your talks, and saw that this is a phrase you’ve used before, so it must be something you believe in. To suggest that there is an ULTIMATE prize (and it’s about mating), is to diminish the complexity of modern life.
I’d really appreciate hearing you expound on this (and so would my readers).
Thanks so much.
Dr. Fisher’s reply:
Wendy, from a Darwinian perspective, the ability to find an appropriate mate with whom to reproduce provides one with the opportunity to send one’s DNA on into tomorrow. That is, genetically speaking, survival. I am fully aware that life is full of tremendous richness and complexity. Life would be even richer if people like you weren’t hostile.. Helen fisher.
(Image: Matters of the Heart [1])
Why It’s Great to Be Single on Valentines Day [4]. Reason #9 (of 10) from Jen M:
“I think we should just let them have this one, the couples. Being in a relationship is a lot of work. So, they take a day to honor themselves and the love they have for each other. It’s important, because when you’re in a relationship it’s easy to forget that that’s what it’s all ultimately about: making your lives better and more enjoyable because you’re there to love and support each other. My friend in AA says that being in a relationship is like pouring Miracle Grow on your character defects. And that’s my experience. I feel perfectly sane until I begin to entwine my life with someone else and then I realize some of the demons I thought I’d ousted have just been lying dormant. The benefits of happy coupledom are plenty, but so is the work getting and staying there. Hats off to them. I try to see Valentine’s Day like Mother’s Day. I don’t lament the fact that I’m not getting breakfast in bed because I’m not a mother.”