you will be loved

Not too long ago somebody asked me if I believed in the idea of love…

I put on some cologne before going out to explore Bloomington at three in the morning. It was pretty unnecessary. As I was walking though, I got the certain feeling that I was going to die. Needless to say, it was pretty uncomfortable, and my relaxed pace quickly turned into a sprint down the cement channel. The channel eventually opened into a river, and I got back onto the streets to figure out where I was. The mind can play dirty tricks on you sometimes, and for the rest of the nite I had the distinct feeling that someone was walking next to me. It was an awkward presence, but kind of nice at the same time.

Our bodies are capable of a wide range of emotions. Just to name a few: fear, anger, sorrow, happiness, dread, uncertainty, disappointment, kindness, firmness, and love. Quite simply we feel emotions as a result of the random firing of neurons in the brain to spark chemical reactions in the body, causing you to feel a certain way; however, something must catalyze these chemical reactions, else we would just randomly feel different emotions throughout the day. It is our interaction with the world that will catalyze these reactions to cause emotions within someone. My walk down the cement channel, with which I was unfamiliar, caused me to be afraid, and so I ran. Equally it is your interaction with someone or something that will cause you to love. It’s very real, and whether or not they love you back is their decision because we have free will.

I heard a story the other day about a mother with her two children, fleeing for their lives in a country in the midst of a war. An officer heard faint noises coming from a bush, and so he sent someone ahead to see what the noise was. Inside the bush were the mother and her two children, starving and thirsty. The officer handed a loaf of bread to the woman, and she broke it in half for each of the children, but kept none for herself. I don’t know of any emotion besides love which would allow for such a selfless act.

On that note I think it’s time to close this chapter and start a new one. La vita è bella.

-jack