Love & Other Complaints: Part II
Sigh. Yes...SIGH.
I have no credibility with my friends when it comes to my love life.
Maybe it's because I don't have one.
I think I do, but I am officially a cult of one.
I can almost hear my intimate friends' ears shutting down and see their eyes glazing over when I report on my latest affair of the heart. I can hear the gentle rustling as they idly flip the pages of a two year old TV Guide when I am on the phone recounting my latest triumph or disappointment. In truth, they will have stopped reading this blog by now, and for any first time visitors, I recommend you do the same. There is nothing to be gained here. Nothing.
It is my conversation with myself, and I have to admit I am getting bored already.
One of my wives, long before she came to her senses and attached estranged to the word wife, used to favour a powder blue sweatshirt which had a retro style drawing of two woman on the front. It was captioned...
"I thought I was in love; turns out it was the flu."
I loved that shirt, and thinking back on it now she must have too, because she wore it constantly. Hmm.
Is love the flu? Stupid question? Of course, like all sweatshirt slogans it has an element of truth to it. I think at the beginning and near the end of a love affair it has some serious truth to it. Both periods make one feel the symptoms associated with the illness...upset stomach, dizziness, confusion, excessive sweating, loss of most appetites, an aversion to being vertical,and a general sense of being out of control. That is precisely how I am feeling this very moment. Is it love then?
Why sure, Virginia!
Imagine it is winter. Can you picture winter? Good! Now imagine Jack and Jill, two lovers of indeterminate age under bulky skidoo suits are trudging up a hill in a magnificant snowstorm. Obviously they aren't after water at this time of year, so why are they doing it? Well, Virginia, they are going tobogganing! But they forgot to pull one along with them. They are standing at the top hugging each other in consolation for their forgetfulness and wasted uphill trudging when a mighty gust of wind upsets their balance and Jack and Jill go rolling down the hill wrapped firmly in each others arms, more and more snow sticking to them as they roll down the slope, laughing and hugging and clinging to each other as they form into a giant snowball and crash violently against the Tree of Reason. Now the Tree of Reason will make anyone stop short. No matter how merrily they have been rolling along.
So Jack says..."We could have been hurt! What were we thinking, hugging recklessly at the top of the hill?"
Jill replies "I think I am hurt, or it might be the flu. Let's untangle ourselves and go think on this."
A very reasonable suggestion on Jill's part. You can see how fast acting the Tree is.
So they part, each going to their home to soak their bruises and ponder the events of the day.
Now if they had stayed closer to the Tree of Reason, or even took a frozen bough home with them, the story would end right here...but oh no, there's more!
A few days later Jack found himself at the base of the hill, hoping that Jill might wander by, and sure enough she did. It is important to note that neither party had brought a toboggan, and they met some considerable distance from the Tree.
"Wanna go for another tumble, Jill?"
"I'm not sure it's a good idea Jack, but I guess so. It was kinda fun and the swelling has gone down considerably."
This initiated a pattern with Jack and Jill. Time after time they would trudge up the hill, hug furiously at the crest and fall down the slope to crash against the Tree, and reason equally furiously that they were wrong to be doing this. They would duly part for a time, always to return to the bottom of the hill and repeat the process.
Now as parables go, this one is fairly shabby, especially since it is ongoing and the issue is somewhat murky and the ending very much in doubt and there seems to be no real point anywhere.
Nonetheless, I would like to discuss a few things amongst myself and maybe get some input from any first time visitors. The only factual information I can divulge so far is that Jack and Jill are not the real names of the principal players in this tumbling tale, but the legal names must be witheld to protect the innocent.
I will start by asking myself why these two went up the hill in the first place. If it was really to go sliding, surely one of them would have gone home to get a toboggan or a sled or a shred of cardboard. Did they just want to be alone? A snowstorm would offer some privacy, and the limited visibility at the top of the hill would contribute even more. Were they really lamenting the lack of sliding material when they started this hugging? Was it Jack's idea to go up there? Was it Jill's? Was it mutual? Were they really happy on the way downhill that first time or just laughing and giggling from nervous surprise that neither of them lost their grip and discovered they didn't really want to? And after they were snapped back into reality by the Tree of Reason...why would they do it again? And why would they suspect they had found clarity by smashing headlong into the Tree? Usually a blow like that makes the mind a little befuddled for a time. Is that what happened? Were they discombobulated and mistook it for reason? What does it mean for them to continue with this up and down pattern? Were they becoming completey unhinged or were they gaining insight into it's raison d'etre? Was it some strange permutation of love, or just a desire to hold someone and share a journey, however short and dizzying.
Tough questions...more suitable to a philosophical round table than a lowly blog!
And as we now leave "Jack and Jill", I wonder to myself whether they will continue this bizarre behaviour. Will they realize that they can simply hug each other on level ground under the Tree of Reason and save themselves all that trudging up and tumbling back down into the Tree with its painful stopping power?
I cannot wait to find out, and even if it takes years I swear I will figure out why the two of them found it necessary to climb that bloody hill in the first place.
I have no credibility with my friends when it comes to my love life.
Maybe it's because I don't have one.
I think I do, but I am officially a cult of one.
I can almost hear my intimate friends' ears shutting down and see their eyes glazing over when I report on my latest affair of the heart. I can hear the gentle rustling as they idly flip the pages of a two year old TV Guide when I am on the phone recounting my latest triumph or disappointment. In truth, they will have stopped reading this blog by now, and for any first time visitors, I recommend you do the same. There is nothing to be gained here. Nothing.
It is my conversation with myself, and I have to admit I am getting bored already.
One of my wives, long before she came to her senses and attached estranged to the word wife, used to favour a powder blue sweatshirt which had a retro style drawing of two woman on the front. It was captioned...
"I thought I was in love; turns out it was the flu."
I loved that shirt, and thinking back on it now she must have too, because she wore it constantly. Hmm.
Is love the flu? Stupid question? Of course, like all sweatshirt slogans it has an element of truth to it. I think at the beginning and near the end of a love affair it has some serious truth to it. Both periods make one feel the symptoms associated with the illness...upset stomach, dizziness, confusion, excessive sweating, loss of most appetites, an aversion to being vertical,and a general sense of being out of control. That is precisely how I am feeling this very moment. Is it love then?
Why sure, Virginia!
Imagine it is winter. Can you picture winter? Good! Now imagine Jack and Jill, two lovers of indeterminate age under bulky skidoo suits are trudging up a hill in a magnificant snowstorm. Obviously they aren't after water at this time of year, so why are they doing it? Well, Virginia, they are going tobogganing! But they forgot to pull one along with them. They are standing at the top hugging each other in consolation for their forgetfulness and wasted uphill trudging when a mighty gust of wind upsets their balance and Jack and Jill go rolling down the hill wrapped firmly in each others arms, more and more snow sticking to them as they roll down the slope, laughing and hugging and clinging to each other as they form into a giant snowball and crash violently against the Tree of Reason. Now the Tree of Reason will make anyone stop short. No matter how merrily they have been rolling along.
So Jack says..."We could have been hurt! What were we thinking, hugging recklessly at the top of the hill?"
Jill replies "I think I am hurt, or it might be the flu. Let's untangle ourselves and go think on this."
A very reasonable suggestion on Jill's part. You can see how fast acting the Tree is.
So they part, each going to their home to soak their bruises and ponder the events of the day.
Now if they had stayed closer to the Tree of Reason, or even took a frozen bough home with them, the story would end right here...but oh no, there's more!
A few days later Jack found himself at the base of the hill, hoping that Jill might wander by, and sure enough she did. It is important to note that neither party had brought a toboggan, and they met some considerable distance from the Tree.
"Wanna go for another tumble, Jill?"
"I'm not sure it's a good idea Jack, but I guess so. It was kinda fun and the swelling has gone down considerably."
This initiated a pattern with Jack and Jill. Time after time they would trudge up the hill, hug furiously at the crest and fall down the slope to crash against the Tree, and reason equally furiously that they were wrong to be doing this. They would duly part for a time, always to return to the bottom of the hill and repeat the process.
Now as parables go, this one is fairly shabby, especially since it is ongoing and the issue is somewhat murky and the ending very much in doubt and there seems to be no real point anywhere.
Nonetheless, I would like to discuss a few things amongst myself and maybe get some input from any first time visitors. The only factual information I can divulge so far is that Jack and Jill are not the real names of the principal players in this tumbling tale, but the legal names must be witheld to protect the innocent.
I will start by asking myself why these two went up the hill in the first place. If it was really to go sliding, surely one of them would have gone home to get a toboggan or a sled or a shred of cardboard. Did they just want to be alone? A snowstorm would offer some privacy, and the limited visibility at the top of the hill would contribute even more. Were they really lamenting the lack of sliding material when they started this hugging? Was it Jack's idea to go up there? Was it Jill's? Was it mutual? Were they really happy on the way downhill that first time or just laughing and giggling from nervous surprise that neither of them lost their grip and discovered they didn't really want to? And after they were snapped back into reality by the Tree of Reason...why would they do it again? And why would they suspect they had found clarity by smashing headlong into the Tree? Usually a blow like that makes the mind a little befuddled for a time. Is that what happened? Were they discombobulated and mistook it for reason? What does it mean for them to continue with this up and down pattern? Were they becoming completey unhinged or were they gaining insight into it's raison d'etre? Was it some strange permutation of love, or just a desire to hold someone and share a journey, however short and dizzying.
Tough questions...more suitable to a philosophical round table than a lowly blog!
And as we now leave "Jack and Jill", I wonder to myself whether they will continue this bizarre behaviour. Will they realize that they can simply hug each other on level ground under the Tree of Reason and save themselves all that trudging up and tumbling back down into the Tree with its painful stopping power?
I cannot wait to find out, and even if it takes years I swear I will figure out why the two of them found it necessary to climb that bloody hill in the first place.
posted by Byron | 5:52 AM
6 Comments:
It wasn't a TV guide. It was a packaging catalogue.
Leave comedy to the funny people....
I as I read this I imaged less of a Sisyphus tale, but rather a story so complex, Jack and Jill should appreciate having gone through it at all.
For some reason, my analyses did not cover the WHY of what they did, but rather the fact that they could have avoided it all together, but then they would have lived that much less of life.
I've traversed a few hills, and my stumbles have made me hit a few trees but you can't really see the forest if you don't hit a few right? Life is for those that are willing to get the bruises because, as Jill noted, the swelling does go down. And even if its a scar instead of a bruise, I'd sooner let my body look like a map of rivers with all my markings then some blank canvas that I was too bored to bother with.
Thanks for this...
Trudging and tumbling is what makes the traveling worth doing.
I agree with both you and William, Larry. But not everyone feels that way. Everything has to make sense to some people, and that is tragic. Give me the loop dee loops everytime. Give me big minds. Give me crazy women. Give me enthusiasm. Give me mystery. Give me big love. Give me gut wrenching apple carts spills.
And I will give them all back to you!
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