Hello, @meno, I upvoted and resteemed because your story is beautifully written and the pictures expertly chosen. Why do we write stories? How has it helped our survival? I think, firstly, storytelling is about, just as you write above, creating palatable analogies that can carry warnings. I think about the differeneces between men and women. Women were the child-rearers, the socialisers, they gathered nuts and berries, foraging, making people comfortable (generalising here). I believe that the need to communicate - about possible enemies is expressed through warning tales, etc. and can be attributed to the need for a social "chat" - so-called "gossip" would have helped women to become aware of lurking danger so they could telegraph it back to their group. With stories, we all have a beginning, a middle and an end. We each, at various stages of our lives, answer to the call of an embedded biological clock. To what extent are decisions that we make biologically driven? For some people, their heart rules their head; whereas for others, clearly, their lives are mapped out rationally, and they feel no frustration in following that defined path. I like to read people. I can learn so much from the way people interact on this forum, their choice of words and their reactions. I can sense straight away when people have reacted to the comments of others in an overly sensitive way (hopefully not to mine, LOL). I find it absolutely fascinating. I greatly enjoyed reading your post, above. It is beautifully crafted, and though-provoking. I know what you mean, when you talk about guilt. I guess sometimes, we don't realise until it's too late that we will regret our actions, because we forget the emotion that caused us to act the way we did, yet we're left with the consequence, which sometimes lasts so much longer than the emotions that gave rise to the action we later regret. I think this we call guilt, depending on the severity of the action. I like to think that we would feel no guilt if we had no empathy. And even though I sometimes wonder whether the guilt I feel can qualify as empathy, since if I didn't feel sad after something I did or said I later regretted, am I empathetic because I've wounded myself, or because I feel genuine sympathy for the other person? Like, is the pain I feel because I can't believe that I would be guilty of such a misdemeanour (we're talking sins of etiquette here, not crimes that would cause yours truly to appear on a WANTED poster) and therefore, the pain of a wounded ego, or is it pain because I caused another person distress? I will follow you because I like your writing, and psychology of character.