Differences between S² (Home) and O² (Quest)
As a vulnerable species who was slower and weaker than most other animals living on the African savannah (our birthplace), we are inevitably seeking to find and maintain an environment that is secure and safe. We long for nurturance as a species with high levels of a bonding peptide hormone called oxytocin. I am reminded of the comforting melody to be found in the second movement (Largo) of Dvorak’s New World Symphony or the reassuring passages to be found in Copland’s composition written to accompany Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. We seek out and help to build settings in which there is order and continuity. We are historians who live in our past and are the architects of nests and gatherings of warmth and comfort. As repeated at the start of Cheers (a popular TV show), we wish to dwell in a place where “everybody knows my name.”
By contrast, as inquisitive human beings, we wish to wander off and tinker with new gadgets. We are often addicted to our own adrenaline as we take on new challenges and climb a tall mountain. We grow uneasy with the same old things happening every day and yearn for the journey to a new place and encounters with people who differ in some ways from us and other people who look and sound like us. We are explorers and inventors. The music by John Williams that introduces Star Wars or the composition by Michael Torke called Javelin calls us to this quest. We are architects of research labs and gatherings where new ideas are shared. As declared at the start of each Star Trek episode (a popular TV show), our mission is to “explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before!”
One can view the view the distinction between S² (Home) and O² (Quest) from several different vantage points.
Chart One: Vantage Points
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