Well, it seems like it is that time again. It wouldn’t seem right to not have a a few musings on love show up on this site. I don’t think I have had a proper one in some time. Hopefully my experiences since then in Love and in English make this a more palatable experience.
So, Love, right? Despite appearances I actually consider myself quite the romantic; on that same token I consider myself quite the scientist. Put side by side the two are at odds with one another. Science is cold and calculating, emotionless and logical. Love is crazy and wild, all the cards on the table, reckless. How can these two live harmoniously without being at odds? Well, in short, they can’t. (You thought I was going to give you a reason why they can, weren’t you?) This does not mean that a person with feet firmly planted in both camps can’t live without a massive amount of cognitive dissonance. It just takes some work.
Science allows us to view the world in a way that is objective. As humans we are inherently emotional. These can and often do cloud the ways we view things. For purposes of this example, think of a time when you were sleeping alone, perhaps all along in a big house with no one else around. There was probably a time during that experience when you got a little spooked for reasons that are not entirely based in reality. Science does not allow one to think that way. That’s why I love Science and I base almost every belief I have on it. It is completely logical and makes sound decisions based on data and evidence. But…
How boring would it be to live a life, a human life, only through the lens of the scientific method. To me, as humans, we are given this amazing ability to express and experience emotions. That is why I leave love up to this side of my psyche. Sure, there is science that explains why and how we feel the way we do. You could read it (which I have) and fully understand that love in and of itself is a biological process that is primarily used for procreation, but that is too much for me. We are sentient beings capable of thought. We can control our baser instincts and extrapolate more from them as well. I am driven by love, and I dare say I’m not alone. Most of humanities most beautiful arts are expressions of love, be it new love or loss. This is something that I can’t imagine would have happened if we fully understood what drives us as humans and rejected every impulse.
Love is fickle though. If you live by the sword you also die by the sword, and that means opening yourself to myriad other emotions that may impede your life. The great thing is though by allowing yourself to be hurt you also allow yourself to experience some of the greatest joys that human kind can experience. That is the reward of all this. This is why I will continue searching and why I can not let science interfere. I would be lying if I said I haven’t made some dumb choices that absolutely defy logic for the pursuit of love, but do I regret it? Well, yeah some of it, some of them were really stupid mistakes. That doesn’t mean I am going to stop though. To quote a favorite, if not completely cheesy lyric, “I love love, I love being in love, I don’t care what it does to me.”