Suppose you had the chance to partake of the lotus right now... You know that, once you eat the "honeyed plant," you will forget all about your family, friends, career goals...but you will also be so happy that you will not care about what you have left behind. Would you eat, or would you refuse, and why?
For those of you who are Trekkies, the lotus reminds me of one of my favorite episodes from the original series... Remember the one where the Enterprise crew beams down to that planet with the plants that shot their spores into the crew members' faces? The spores totally alters them, making them so happy that they forget about the Enterprise and their duty. Even Mr. Spock is affected by the spores; my favorite scene involves Spock swinging from a tree branch, laughing, flirting with a former girlfriend, and engaging in totally un-Spocklike behavior. One link -- both this "Star Trek" episode and the Lotus Eaters episode involve the loss of memory: the substances ALTERS the person, making him or her indifferent to whatever goals mattered before. The memory aspect seems to make the Lotus more dangerous than many trials would be... How can you fight something that alters your mind?
