Friday, August 31, 2012

Who exactly is the “you” in “I love you”?


Your head is swimming...your thinking has become clouded...a rosy haze has descended around you and an overwhelming spell of dizzy happiness has enveloped you...you have fallen in love.

But when people claim “I’m in love with you” have you ever wondered who exactly is the “you” in “I love you”?

This “you” is actually a projected image of the actual person and this “you” does not have a physical existence. 

We never fall in love with real people...we always fall in love with some figment of our absurd imagination....some morphed extension of the real person.

Yet people firmly believe that fantasizing about someone else is as bad as cheating. Well the truth is people in love are always fantasizing...keeping the facade of the real person in front...mentally replacing him/her with the image and feeling high thinking “I’m in love with this amazing person!”
Well the amazing person resides in your mind and is not the person in front of you.

But then sooner or later most people are whisked out of fantasies.
Some zap out of love...some feel heart broken...some start to think boredom is inevitable...

What I am trying to say is that the basic premise of falling in love is flawed. Even though love can be real and is essentially an unsullied expression of a cornucopia of higher emotions...the person you love is always a work of fiction.

But yes...love is eternal...the love that you had felt for that fictitious person...the love that had you reeling in its wake...that was real...it’s a pity that the person it was meant for cannot exist.

Perfection is after all an imaginary concept which we can strive for but never attain...but it’s fascinating to know that we...we human beings with all our imperfections are still capable of imagining perfection...


PS: Let me provide a bonus acid test for ruling out confusion in love.
If I have never hurt you...you’ve loved me never...
If you’ve never hurt me...I’ve loved you never...


5 comments:

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  2. the only supposed-flaw I would point out in the analogy is the lack of mentioning perspective! in "I LOVE YOU MAA" or likes, the “you” is NEITHER actually a projected image of the actual person NOR a figment of absurd imagination, for most if not some intellectuals(a group where I never see myself in) !

    Btw, I m not one with superior grip over the vocabs, so please bear with my mistakes if any :-) ! Love your blogs though :-) !!

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  3. Hi Sanjay Chakraborty!

    You see filial love is very different from the kind of love that I've talked about here.

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    1. Well..for the sake of argument I could have said..that was not exclusively spelled out anywhere (only to be understood once you keep reading):-)! But rather I am glad that you helped me add another entry to my vocab (I just googled). And moreover, communication is always a better option than argument :-) !!

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