Sunday, July 31, 2005

The Sum of Our Parts

Maybe I’m unromantic in thinking this, but I never really thought love would be the answer to: “What’s going to make me happy in this life?” Aristophanes (an ancient Greek comedian/philosopher) figured that man and woman were once joined together as one spectacular being…so spectacular that the gods themselves felt threatened by these beings and decided to split them in two…two fragments, two genders…man and woman…which is why we seek our other half, so that we may feel “whole” again…united as one being. Crazy, hey? I thought so; since it doesn’t seem to reflect how I feel about the whole “love” thing. Yet, it seems to be what the entire planet wants to believe; and maybe I want to believe it too. But I can’t allow myself to think something so reckless. All be it, it would be a simple answer to everything if it were true.

"Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole." -Aristophanes, 450-385 BC

Imagine if all you had to do is fall in love with another person to feel whole. With that logic I should be the most wholly complete person on the planet! I fall in love and my brain falls out of my skull. I’ve got to love smarter. I’ve got to recite this religiously: the answers to my questions do not lie in any person, no matter how much I love them. It’s self-centered to think that my own romantic satisfaction grants me a greater understanding of this world around me and the people within it.

Wholly,
BR80

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