I am an admitted Romantic. But I am no longer a believer. Though I cannot help my own romantic feelings and tendencies, I no longer believe that romance is what it promises us. It is not a path to human emotional fulfillment, or happiness. It is not the door to life-long intimacy and a shared inner life with another. It does not answer our sense of loneliness, our need to feel connected inwardly to another, for very long. It does not lead where the feelings it produces suggest that it will lead.
It is, rather, just an evolutionary ruse. Bait, for the soul - as beauty is for the eye and pleasure is for the body - to persuade us to procreation. After which it has no more use for us. It is a chemical meth lab in our own brain, a precisely targeted drug, as addictive as any opiate, which, after luring us to mate, leaves us to wallow in withdrawal.
The same man who wrote this:
It is, rather, just an evolutionary ruse. Bait, for the soul - as beauty is for the eye and pleasure is for the body - to persuade us to procreation. After which it has no more use for us. It is a chemical meth lab in our own brain, a precisely targeted drug, as addictive as any opiate, which, after luring us to mate, leaves us to wallow in withdrawal.
The same man who wrote this:
"I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright."
..the very same man, who could pen such romantic, effusive expressions of love; this profoundly Romantic man abandoned, forsook, and rejected the young bride who had given her all to him.
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright."
..the very same man, who could pen such romantic, effusive expressions of love; this profoundly Romantic man abandoned, forsook, and rejected the young bride who had given her all to him.
Romance. I wonder if perhaps it was the first sin of Adam. After all, whether you believe the story to be some form of truth or not, the scriptures do seem to make much of the fact that it was Eve who was deceived, who thought that the tree indeed held something good, but that Adam acted with clear understanding of the lie and the act before him.
So in the context of this story, if he knew the fruit was forbidden, if he knew that God was not withholding something "good" from them, if he knew that it would make him unhappy, and lead to death and separation from the creator, why on earth would he take it? What could possibly motivate him to act in complete opposition to what he knew to be true, and good, and would lead to his own happiness, peace, and fulfillment? What could entice him to do something that he knew, without doubt, that he would regret?
Perhaps he took the fruit from her hand, because he could not bear to see his relationship with his beloved severed. Perhaps he had to share everything she experienced, had to remain one with her, had to cleave to her, even if it meant following her to hell. Perhaps he valued his connection to his bride above all else. Above truth, above God, above even life itself. Perhaps Adam's sin, the first sin of a man, was to be a Romantic.
So in the context of this story, if he knew the fruit was forbidden, if he knew that God was not withholding something "good" from them, if he knew that it would make him unhappy, and lead to death and separation from the creator, why on earth would he take it? What could possibly motivate him to act in complete opposition to what he knew to be true, and good, and would lead to his own happiness, peace, and fulfillment? What could entice him to do something that he knew, without doubt, that he would regret?
Perhaps he took the fruit from her hand, because he could not bear to see his relationship with his beloved severed. Perhaps he had to share everything she experienced, had to remain one with her, had to cleave to her, even if it meant following her to hell. Perhaps he valued his connection to his bride above all else. Above truth, above God, above even life itself. Perhaps Adam's sin, the first sin of a man, was to be a Romantic.
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