If I were a psychologist, trained in the causes and effects of socio-neural stimulus-response, I might know why so many things happen. I might understand why people’s eyes brim with tears as they remember both horror and beauty. I could possess an intellectual understanding of the attachment between mothers and their babies, fathers and mothers, children and their parents. The rage that manifests itself as murder might be readily explained, had I a well-grounded understanding of psychology.
But, then, I often wonder, is an understanding of cause and effect truly something to seek out? Is mystery—the absence of understanding—a bad thing? Does knowledge always equate to truth? Is there always light awaiting us at that magical moment of enlightenment?
I may not need to go looking, anyway. Bad things are the result of fear and randomness. Fear underlies even the most ghastly behaviors, from murder to bullying to white-collar crime of epic proportions. And good things? I’m musing on it.
