Love

Author: Padre Alejandro Cortés González-Báez  

 

 

The Movement for Poetic Action is known for painting on the walls of Monterrey texts from many contributors. From some of these wall I have chosen two which I have found to be both witty and beautiful. I also think they have a lot of hidden meanings.

The first one says: "Call us what you may, but love made us this way." Ah yes, love, that shameless attribute that makes the sane insane. The very same attribute that makes people quite different from what they were before. This is not a trivial matter. While hatred and indifference can destroy the world, love make the world go round. But let us not forget that it is a two edge sword, to be held firmly by the hand of reason. Firmly because if the sword were to fly off from the grip it could cause dangerous harm to life and limb. Yes, people are quite different from what they were before.

The end never justifies the means and neither can a disordered love be justified, albeit understandable. How can one convince a person who has lost the capacity to reason or who reasons without thinking? How does one convince a person who does not wish to be convinced?

"That person does not suit you," family members or friends argue to parties who are unbalanced. Love is blind and character defects are infinitesimal to the eyes of the infatuated. These defects will disappear once they are married, the infatuated will say. False hope rules.

On another wall it was written: "Escape unscathed from Love." I wonder if that is possible. When love ends, as when love begins, nothing stays the same, because the fires of love leave their mark, often hurtful and destructive. These tragic wounds can often last a lifetime.

A popular song preaches that life is not life without love. Without love the heart is weak. Without love the soul dies, defeated in painful despair, senselessly sacrificed. There is no hope of salvation.

To learn to love reasonably, Shakespeare would say, that is the question.