Cycles in Life

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When we get up in the morning, we are part of two cycles: the cycles of nature, and the cycles of culture. We get up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home late in the day, eat dinner, watch television, prepare bills, make some phone calls, and go to sleep. This is the typical cultural cycle for most, in western society. This repeats itself over and over. We face the auto traffic at least two times a day: going to work, and coming home from work. Theses are not happy moments usually. In fact, the cultural cycles do not usually offer a lot of happiness. We are a stressed people. Now the cycles of nature often bring us joy, and gladness. Think of how we feel when the long hot summer transitions into a welcoming autumn, and the cool breezes start to freshen the air. Then, we gladly feel like raking the autumn leaves. No exhausting summer heat to deal with. Then, comes the hoidays and Christmas season. We look forward to decorating the home front. Sometimes this becomes a yearly ritual. We are happily welcome the first winter snow, and run like children through it. We enjoy making cozy fires in our home's fireplace. we sit around closer together as a family. Then, we get exhausted of the cold winds of winter the amount of indoor time we put up with because of the outdoor cold temperatures. When winter transitions into Spring, we are like little children, restless to be outdoors again. We walk in the parks, we feel so good. Then, spring transitions into summer, and we get to go swimming, to summer camp, vacations. Summer feels hot, and sweaty. We endure it for awhile. The great Mexican thinker, author, philosper speaks of cycles as the certain given of existence. He says that everything is an analogy, a cycle. The theme of cycles as it pertains to nature, and human societies, are a thread throughout much of Paz's work. Paz discusses the stages of the physcial human body growth as an analogy for the development of a society. Each society, goes through the birth process, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Paz speaks not just as an observer of Mexican society, but teh world in general. I get myself wrapped up the harmony and gloom of cycles, but remember what Paz wrote about them, when I studies his works in graduate school, and feel a little more able to deal with these constants that often bother us. I guess we can says we are not only social creatures, but cyclical creatures.