This was very thought provoking and a great analysis of how love, as the word is used today, is very far removed from it’s real meaning, source and objects. Thank you for writing this.
I find it very suspect that psychedelic substances are suddenly being talked about and promoted in the mainstream media as the next great answer to everything in life. Seems like something or someone wants us to end up in a fever-dream state of unreality permanently. No thanks!
As a child of the 70’s I was no stranger to the drug culture. Although I never did much past marijuana. And psychedelics like LSD always terrified me!
As I matured in age and faith, I gladly left the things of feckless childhood behind me.
I can sense an agenda behind the push to normalize these substances and drugs. It’s fuzzy, but no doubt it will become clearer in time. Yet it’s already clear it’s not for our good.
Recently watched a movie with the premise "woman must choose between her husband or the man who was always obsessed with her from a billion miles away." It's a funny movie because it also features the husband being a Sad White Guy, and the husband keeps saying, "You know, I am just a silly Sad White Guy. How can I be your lover, when I am such a silly, quirky White Guy." It almost turns into comedy, an exemplary movie about not being a sad sack, or don't get written as a sad sack by someone who wants to be serious and is unwilling to write that she loves a consummately silly fella.
But that's just a side plot, keeping your marriage together is the side plot. The main plot is this: Can you have one foot in two worlds, both childhood and adulthood? Can you RETVRN?
According to the movie, you cannot. You are only allowed to reminisce, to dream of what could be elsewhere. And, like psychedelics, the movie pitches the only way to come close to RETVRN is greater and greater transgressions against the norm. While most romantic comedies have a "will they or won't they" couple, and it's played for laughs, or sincerity, this movie uses that same trope for tragedy and horror. Tragedy, because they can't be together, horror, because it's clear they want to and the only thing standing in the way is a Silly White Guy and marriage.
Lovers are supposed to be separated by tragic fate - they are from a war-torn country, or one of them was lost at sea, or something. It can't just be that they fell out of touch, DM'd on Twitter, decided to not DM on Twitter, and are now considering cheating. That just means you think you want to be a *cool person* who cheats for love, but it's wanting the personal sense of "I am this kind of cool person, not the kind of reliable boring person I've been saying I am" that makes you bad even if you don't cheat. Jesus said a thing like that in the Bible i think. You should actually try to be a good person, not pat yourself on the back for doing the good thing while openly professing the appeal of the bad.
Jesus doesn't say to the devil in the desert, "I really want it, but no thanks, the rules say no," then dead-eye stare the devil for two hours. Instead Jesus tells the Devil to get out of his line of vision, because he has shit to do. Someone who's telling you "If only we could return to the good days of innocence, I'd give you the Kingdom on Earth" is trying to swindle and con you almost every time.
Young people especially confuse love with the ambition of having a certain kind of partner, something nice and shiny that they like to own. Their suffering of not having that object of desire is fueled by their own incompleteness. I can see how that kind of love taints it for some people who never experience the more mature kinds.
It is unfortunate we don’t have the greek variety of terms, confused language begets confused thoughts.
If you like, you can think of it not as a misreading but a deliberate attack
This one is deep .
-Nate
This was very thought provoking and a great analysis of how love, as the word is used today, is very far removed from it’s real meaning, source and objects. Thank you for writing this.
I find it very suspect that psychedelic substances are suddenly being talked about and promoted in the mainstream media as the next great answer to everything in life. Seems like something or someone wants us to end up in a fever-dream state of unreality permanently. No thanks!
Almost like a time warp ~ Dr. Leary suggested the same thing with psychotropic drugs in 1962....
Not for me thankyouverymuch .
I came from a chaotic household and didn't really grasp what love meant until I was in my late teens .
-Nate
It wasn’t until I became a more mature Christian that I was even able to “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
Still imperfectly realized, but better able to understand the vastness of His love.
No navel-gazing or drug induced self-actualization imitations accepted.
You're a wise woman Nana .
Not many have reached your awareness .
I'm old and have watched far too many die of drugs or drug related causes, I no longer think even pot is "harmless" .
-Nate
Why thank you, dear one.
As a child of the 70’s I was no stranger to the drug culture. Although I never did much past marijuana. And psychedelics like LSD always terrified me!
As I matured in age and faith, I gladly left the things of feckless childhood behind me.
I can sense an agenda behind the push to normalize these substances and drugs. It’s fuzzy, but no doubt it will become clearer in time. Yet it’s already clear it’s not for our good.
I hope you can explain this to the one in charge these days .
So few of my contemporaries survived the 1970's it's amazing .
-Nate
I’m so sorry to hear that. The world of drugs is fraught with peril.
Recently watched a movie with the premise "woman must choose between her husband or the man who was always obsessed with her from a billion miles away." It's a funny movie because it also features the husband being a Sad White Guy, and the husband keeps saying, "You know, I am just a silly Sad White Guy. How can I be your lover, when I am such a silly, quirky White Guy." It almost turns into comedy, an exemplary movie about not being a sad sack, or don't get written as a sad sack by someone who wants to be serious and is unwilling to write that she loves a consummately silly fella.
But that's just a side plot, keeping your marriage together is the side plot. The main plot is this: Can you have one foot in two worlds, both childhood and adulthood? Can you RETVRN?
According to the movie, you cannot. You are only allowed to reminisce, to dream of what could be elsewhere. And, like psychedelics, the movie pitches the only way to come close to RETVRN is greater and greater transgressions against the norm. While most romantic comedies have a "will they or won't they" couple, and it's played for laughs, or sincerity, this movie uses that same trope for tragedy and horror. Tragedy, because they can't be together, horror, because it's clear they want to and the only thing standing in the way is a Silly White Guy and marriage.
Lovers are supposed to be separated by tragic fate - they are from a war-torn country, or one of them was lost at sea, or something. It can't just be that they fell out of touch, DM'd on Twitter, decided to not DM on Twitter, and are now considering cheating. That just means you think you want to be a *cool person* who cheats for love, but it's wanting the personal sense of "I am this kind of cool person, not the kind of reliable boring person I've been saying I am" that makes you bad even if you don't cheat. Jesus said a thing like that in the Bible i think. You should actually try to be a good person, not pat yourself on the back for doing the good thing while openly professing the appeal of the bad.
Jesus doesn't say to the devil in the desert, "I really want it, but no thanks, the rules say no," then dead-eye stare the devil for two hours. Instead Jesus tells the Devil to get out of his line of vision, because he has shit to do. Someone who's telling you "If only we could return to the good days of innocence, I'd give you the Kingdom on Earth" is trying to swindle and con you almost every time.
Young people especially confuse love with the ambition of having a certain kind of partner, something nice and shiny that they like to own. Their suffering of not having that object of desire is fueled by their own incompleteness. I can see how that kind of love taints it for some people who never experience the more mature kinds.
It is unfortunate we don’t have the greek variety of terms, confused language begets confused thoughts.
words bad
drugs bad
got it
The only euphoria I trust is the euphoria I get from lifting weights