Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Faith in the existence of true love

Princess Dominique's recent musings about the existence of "true love" have inspired quite a bit of thought from me on the subject - a good deal of which had to do with the dual perspective on the issue. So, I thought I'd explore that a little... via online rambling. I think that's still legal.

I mentioned to Dominique that, as long as we know of one person (even if it is ourselves) whose love is true, then we know that true love exists in this world. There's something comforting about that, for me, because I feel that if at least one person is capable of and willing to demonstrate the kind of pure, real, and very deep love that, I at least, have always dreamed of, then there's a chance that there are others.

On the other hand, it's true that I'm occasionally thrown when I see people who seem to truly be in-love with each other and not just in-lust. A lot of times, I'll admit, I look at relationships and do a bit of technical hatin' on'em. I wish them well, but I often don't expect them to last.

Seeing people who just want to rub up against one another seems so much more common than seeing people who seem genuinely interested in and enthused by the core of another human-being. When I see that (or what appears to be that, since that's all I can go by), it's quite a (welcome) shock to my system of cynicism.

"Who are these people who actually want THIS partner, not just *A* partner," I wonder.

It's the kind of thing that renews my faith and hope in humanity. It's an infrequent, but very necessary window into the value and potential of regular ol' folk (as nikki might put it).

It's like this long-overdue confirmation of the idealism of youth. You know, the kind of things some of us hoped and believed would be true about this world - people being, by nature, honest and faithful and caring.

Like those damned cherries and power pellets in Ms. Pac-Man, these moments supply my optimistic and idealistic sides with the "power-ups" they need to survive and even thrive in this harsh reality.

Other examples are moments when I see a father holding his baby - especially if he can't stop making goo-goo faces and loving the child up. It's a display of affection bereft of pretense.

It simply is. The fact that I'm there to see it is purely coincidental, but even if I weren't around, this kind of pure, selfless love would exist and endure.

That means that whenever I FAIL to see such moments (or am unfortunate enough to be inundated with wholly negative examples of human potential), I know, on both an intellectual and a gut level, that the good stuff is still out there.

Just like the bad stuff doesn't go away when I close my eyes, neither does the good.

I guess this is what validates and invigorates my waning faith in my fellow peopleseses.


What validates yours?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know what validates mine. I don't see enough real-life examples of the true love that you describe. Maybe that's why I'm so jaded and mistrusting now. The negative images that I'm bombarded with cloud my view. I wish this wasn't the case. I desperately want to believe that real, true, honest, faithful love exists.

West said...

I don't see that many of them, myself. For some reason, the ones I see have quite an effect on me.

That's my heart speaking. My mind says that, for ever example I see, there are probably a number of them that I don't... but they're out there.

Plus, examples of non-romantic love help, too.