Thou Shalt Want

Much energy is spent by a great lot of people in studying and considering the ways in which people interact with each other. Self-help books filled with the perspectives of those who claim the secret to getting along with your fellows line the shelves of Barnes-a-Million for purchase by those who wish to reap the successes that come with the understanding and practice of the principles between their covers. Careers are built often on the basis of nothing else than ones ability to communicate with others; the ability to influence others to want as you want.

It doesn't take a scholar to observe and interpret the actions of people within a group as they try to communicate their wishes and fears to each other; to see their motives and agendas and the different means by which they attempt to fulfill them. Even when people are doing different things or want different things, they are doing it for essentially the same reason: they want to.

Basically, people act out of self-interest. Why else would people spend so much to come to Germany if it was not something they genuine wanted or thought they wanted to do. There are things we want to do and see, and things we want less to do and see. Naturally, we are compelled to follow the necessary steps to get what we want.

There are fifteen of us. That means fifteen different wants and fifteen different steps to getting them.

Everyone is attempting to do the same thing. Some follow; others lead. Many suggest; several coerce. Acquiescence and subordination have the same motivations, even if they have different results. Everyone wants to be part of the group. That's the whole point of the trip as far as I'm concerned. But it could also be said that everyone just wants a group. We do what we can to stay with or around or related to the group, because we want to. At the same time, we try to fit all of those things we've seen in our favorite travel brochures, our personal priorities for what to do and where to go, into the plans of the group.

It makes for laughing and head-shaking and eye-rolling and ranting and raving and hugs and picture-taking. A constant to and fro of emotional flotsam and jetsam that, when looked at from a distance, becomes innocent and amusing, despite being wholly selfish (punctuation?). It's how we've been programmed to behave, though it's easy not to notice that it's even happening. For all I know, I only observe as I want to observe, and none of this actually means anything. But wouldn't that actually serve to prove my point?

Either way, it's four-thirty, and I have a paper to write.