i wish there were some type of blueprint that enabled us to review with scrutiny all of our cultural detrimental habits due to socialization and our monkey see, monkey do tendency. but i guess it’s called observation and trial and error!

good that science, in this case, provides an answer to what can be arrived at through common sense: if i pour hot water on my arm and it hurts, this feeling response should tell me not to do it.

but then again i wonder if there is a type of sort-of subliminal addiction associated to that sensation of physical pain while drinking scalding hot tea in some of these cultures? it reminds of a person i met at a party a long time ago. she asked me to put out her cigarette on her arm. perplexed, i asked her why and she said she derived pleasure from it.

i wonder about the psychological and political conditions of these people used to imbibing burning-hot liquid? that cup of tea might, then, be their daily ephemeral, little oasis in the midst of chaos.