I maintain that Freud was right about us in one respect - that whatever our professed opinions might be on the surface - there is always a hidden current of thought and feeling that flows in a different direction... full of messy, inappropriate, hostile, aggressive, irascible impulses - directed outward at various outside sources of irritation and aversion. These repressed "sentiments" (I hate x, y, z...) have a way of inserting themselves into our daily train of thought, trickling into our speech patterns, making for unexpected gaffes, over-reactions, out-of-kilter behaviors, white-lies, double-standards... making us feel for lack of a better word, conflicted - at least on the inside, ambivalent, more susceptible to insensitivity than our otherwise liberal-progressive consciences would care to admit.....to acknowledge to this sub-current of aggression hiding in the shadows doesn't mean that our conscious opinions (of peace, love, cooperation, tolerance, urbanity, inclusivity etc. etc.) aren't still the more important ones - does it? - the ones we identify with most of the time. If the "bad thoughts" are somewhat, fleeting, peevish, whimsical and involuntary, then what do we have to worry about, right? Isn't this comparable to the power of suggestion (we all hate broccoli, right?) or when our minds absorb random impression from the outside world - a loud noise, a noxious odor, a grotesque image - it did not originate with us, but it's still becomes included into our stream of thoughts - part of our ongoing consciousness nevertheless... But why then do we hold onto such thoughts or feelings? Is this some kind of OCD tendency? How much does this underground reservoir of repressed this and that really determine who we are...There lies Freud's question to us...
On a well-traveled corridor of the East coast - where tourists drive northward every summer on a sleepy (and sometimes dated) old thoroughfare that meanders (roughly speaking) with the shoreline - there lies a coastal village renowned for its posh homes and proud inhabitants - and at the center of this village which boasts of a main street, a historic library and a stately boat landing, a garden shop can be found nestled among costly domiciles - just a stone's throw from the private academy and the gourmet ice cream shop. Set upon five acres of serene commercial flatland - the property houses multiple plants and trees and flowers - providing an oasis of greenery for anyone conjuring up daydreams of bucolic bliss. Set apart from the store - a no-frills wooden edifice - were greenhouses, rows of plants and flowers, larger trees in back and an old modest mansion of a house - still occupied by the family, Estabrook, which had owned the place going back three (3) generations. Th...
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