More than Chemical: Love and Mysticism
I am no scientist—let’s get that straight. But I am a writer. So naturally, I’ve spent some time thinking about love—analyzing love, actually. Love is a chemical reaction that produces oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. This reaction causes bonds to form and sometimes an intense addiction. However, love was more than chemical to me. By all biological accounts, I don’t think that makes much sense. Love should feel like a thing, not a real living, functioning being. But my love felt alive like it needed somewhere for me to put it; like it was heavy and I was carrying it, and somehow it was heavier on my chest when I had to carry it alone. Love was an experience, like a meeting with the divine. The terms and conditions are mostly ruthless. Love held you for too long, but regardless, it affected you; it consumed you. Unrequited love was a curse with no cure, something that ate you away.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
This kind of mysticism is essentially assigning something to having a higher power. For example, I have an emotional connection to movies. I love movies. When in reality, these are just a bunch of pictures, just a bunch of people walking around. By the way, these aren’t even accurate portrayals of people; these people are reading scripts with agendas from corporations or just some guy who smokes a lot of pot. These women aren’t actually written by women, and the gays are written by the straights. Yet I spend my free time with these inaccurate and most likely unattainably attractive fictional individuals (sounds a little weird when you think about it).
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
Like an artist loves (and hates) art, I love music. It’s a beautiful thing to feel the relationship between you and your art. I create beautiful works of art, and yet the compulsion to do so has me by the throat. Pablo Picasso once said, “Painting is stronger than I am. It makes me do what it wants,” and as one of my recent favorites, AURORA, says, “I'm still not sure I want to be an artist. it just happened.” An artist’s relationship with their art is a unique bond. Your art does not boil down to just words and some instruments when it is your art. Now, it is something you’ve made, your creation. Now, it is something that was born from you and, in turn, something you are tied to. Love is not only more than a feeling to us but something that brings other things to life within our minds.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
In a sense, even the chemical reactions in our brains are only molecules, yet they produce thought and action. At our deepest, in our atoms, we are making things more than mere things. My toothbrush is not just a piece of plastic because it has an action assigned to it, a muscle memory, a knowledge of what it is. We mysticize everything in our lives. Our jobs are more than time spent somewhere; they are also a living and perhaps an ego boost or the reason your parents are disappointed in you (we will see). We have personal connections to our families, to our parents, and to our children. Our DNA is linked; we’re bonded in a deeper way. However, as I learned in my sociology classes, the mother is also a role, and the father is also a role—an association, a position in society, and a job. You can do a “bad” job at being a father, and you can do a “good” job, however complicated that gets. Love was more than chemical to me, and it’s more than chemical to millions. Countless songs are written about it—we can’t seem to stop talking about it! We say phrases like “lovesick” and “love struck” because of how love moves. Love produces endless analogies in attempts for explanation. Love starts and ends conflicts and can start and finish wars.
Image Courtesy: Pinterest
Love is seen as a transcendent force that connects individuals to something greater than themselves, whether it be the divine, the universe, or a higher state of consciousness. Love is often described as a union of souls or a merging of two individuals into one. Love is believed to have the power to transform individuals, leading to personal growth, enlightenment, or spiritual awakening. In the literal sense, we place love much higher than it should be placed. However, if we live in a society where things can be sacred, there is seldom anything we should place higher than love.
Strike Out,
Writer: Paris Feazell
Editor: Blake N. Fiadino
Tallahassee