Blog Dis
Love or nihilism?
2023-12-13
For when we love, we open our innermost selves and reveal our hearts, let those around us into that heartland of secrecy and change the landscape of our life. For when we love, we are more than just ourselves because our love escapes the confines of mind and body and is given elsewhere, to a person, an animal, a project, an activity or a sense of well being. Yet, love ultimately becomes loss. It is the inevitability of love to transform from bliss into a state of loss, either through death, separation, indifference or despair. The loss is the sting at the end of the scorpion's tail, reminding you that love has its price (like everything).
To love or not? That is the question I put before you. Do you want to actively seek, give and take love knowing it will eventually fade? Or, conversely, do you take the nihilistic approach and turn your nose down at love and accept that if everything ends in a kind of destruction, obliteration, or whatever label you want to assign it, do you choose nihilism? Nihilism is the opposite of love, for me, not hate, which is what normally comes to mind. Hate for me is love turned inside out. After all, hating someone passionately and with great fervour in a manner of speaking is love - you're in it for the all, not for the half of it. Whereas, nihilism opposes love and accepts there can be no flourishing of anything whatsoever.
Each event in my life, the people around me, sometimes bring out of me opinions that are not always the most gentle in nature. One friend admitted to me his reason for never wanting to have someone or something he loved in his life: because he didn't want to face the death of that love. "That's just crazy," I had reacted, at the time, countering with, "that's nihilism and it's self-defeating to take that attitude. It's like saying you don't give sweet f-all about living."
Far be it for me, a simple-minded author, to pass judgement on a longtime friend. That's precisely what I did, though. Some years back too, my friend had also admitted to me when I told him about the death of a beloved pet that he pushed my feelings aside, to reject any notions of love. He had avoided being around me for months, despite knowing that I loved my kitty like a child, who was emotionally connected with me, the way I was to her. But the love turned to death, that's all my friend saw in the moral of this story. You may choose what you think at the outset is the easiest road to travel, the road that leads to nothing (nihilism) or you may choose the road that leads to love and happiness despite knowing the end will eventually come.
If caught between these two polarities, I choose love. And, hopefully when the Universe looks down on me, and when the sun shines like a mad man smiling, love will smile at me in return.
To love or not? That is the question I put before you. Do you want to actively seek, give and take love knowing it will eventually fade? Or, conversely, do you take the nihilistic approach and turn your nose down at love and accept that if everything ends in a kind of destruction, obliteration, or whatever label you want to assign it, do you choose nihilism? Nihilism is the opposite of love, for me, not hate, which is what normally comes to mind. Hate for me is love turned inside out. After all, hating someone passionately and with great fervour in a manner of speaking is love - you're in it for the all, not for the half of it. Whereas, nihilism opposes love and accepts there can be no flourishing of anything whatsoever.
Each event in my life, the people around me, sometimes bring out of me opinions that are not always the most gentle in nature. One friend admitted to me his reason for never wanting to have someone or something he loved in his life: because he didn't want to face the death of that love. "That's just crazy," I had reacted, at the time, countering with, "that's nihilism and it's self-defeating to take that attitude. It's like saying you don't give sweet f-all about living."
Far be it for me, a simple-minded author, to pass judgement on a longtime friend. That's precisely what I did, though. Some years back too, my friend had also admitted to me when I told him about the death of a beloved pet that he pushed my feelings aside, to reject any notions of love. He had avoided being around me for months, despite knowing that I loved my kitty like a child, who was emotionally connected with me, the way I was to her. But the love turned to death, that's all my friend saw in the moral of this story. You may choose what you think at the outset is the easiest road to travel, the road that leads to nothing (nihilism) or you may choose the road that leads to love and happiness despite knowing the end will eventually come.
If caught between these two polarities, I choose love. And, hopefully when the Universe looks down on me, and when the sun shines like a mad man smiling, love will smile at me in return.
