"The lock-in is a morning rule. Rise, name…" — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (#c939)

Card #c939IR // #c939Synthesis

The lock-in is a morning rule. Rise, name the one sighting, stop. "No further wish to form" is the operating instruction. After that, proxies are enough: a servant who has been near the object becomes kissable, because proximity is now the only remaining unit of value. The day is not filled with the object. It is forbidden to want anything the object does not touch. Ripped from the novel: "I shall see her today!" I exclaim with delight, when I rise in the morning, and look out with gladness of heart at the bright, beautiful sun. "I shall see her today!" And then I have no further wish to form: all, all is included in that one thought.

— In our words · Source: The Sorrows of Young Werther (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

[Use when]

You notice you have stopped forming afternoon plans that do not route through the licensed object — and the not-forming is being called love, focus, or loyalty.

[Why it matters]

Intensity is reversible. A refused second wish is not. Anyone can run this on a person, a launch, a feud, or an audience: let the first sentence of the morning be the only legal wish, and by evening the emptiness of the rest will feel like fate. The uncomfortable implication is that the lock feels like devotion from inside and like a confiscation from anyone who needed a second aim from you.

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