Still Life With Woodpecker-26

This book was a nice break from all the serious, historical, non-fiction stuff I've been reading as of late. It didn't give me a lot of inspiration for a blog post, but it was enjoyable.

The story itself was rather simple, almost cliched. A princess falling in love with a ruffian and the subsequent complications of such a relationship. It's nothing special when you break it down to that level. The main focus of the book was the philosophical outlooks on life that the ruffian, and eventually the princess, posses. In my opinion the "outlaw" philosophy of the "woodpecker" was somewhat insane. However, in saying that I actually give some credibility to it. Bernard (the "ruffian" mentioned earlier) chooses to be an outlaw in order to shake things up in society, and because he places himself outside of society he is viewed as insane. So by saying his philosophy is insane I have now justified that part of it.

I think that the only topic that can be discussed in length is the question posed at various parts of the book. The question is "how does one make love stay?" Obviously not many people know the answer, the divorce rate is so high it makes one wonder why people bother getting married in the first place.

I'll be perfectly honest, I don't have a clue as to what the answer might be. I don't really understand emotions all that well, especially ones as complicated as love. I would say that if there is chemistry between two people, neither one mistreats the other, and nothing stops them from being together, then there would be no reason for divorce. Obviously there has to be more to it than that.

An important part of solving this riddle is defining what exactly is meant by the word "love." Too often in today's society "love" and "lust" are interchangeable terms. However, the two words have different meanings, and should be treated as such.

When I think about it, love is a word that can mean different things to everyone. It may be something that can't be defined, in which case the question of how to make love stay can't be answered.

For the sake of continuing this blog post, I'll try to define love based on what it means to me. To care for someone above all other things, including yourself. To be willing to sacrifice anything and everything for that person, be it money or your very life. To want to shield that person from harm simply because seeing them hurt is painful to you. To be happy just because that person is with you. That is what the word love means to me. It sounds almost poetic now that I think about it.

With that definition in hand, then comes the question of how to make that emotion stay. In a world where such idealist notions are so rare I'm not sure how to get the love to come in the first place. Assuming that kind of love was shared between two people, could anything actually make love go away? My thoughts are going in circles now, I keep having to go back the the definition of love. Is my definition even possible in anything outside of anime, fantasy novels, and manga? Maybe the definition of love in real life is different?

Now that I've gotten started trying to figure out the answer to this question it's driving me nuts. I guess it serves me right for trying to find the solution by systematically analyzing something like love.

I forget exactly what the book said the answer was, it had something to do with keeping the mystery alive in the relationship. I guess that might be part of it, but the relationship in the book seems to be mainly sexual, rather than emotional. I guess there's emotion involved as well, but it didn't seem like it was predominant to me.

I'm getting nowhere with this, I guess this question simply can't be answered. Love will come when it comes, and go when it goes, and all this discussion about how to make it stay is pointless. Perhaps the divorce rate is so high because people don't have the right definition of love when they marry, perhaps it's something else that causes it. Whatever it is that causes the problem, and whatever the solution is, is beyond my ability to make out.

Since I've run dry of my own ideas, I'll end things here and wait for a comment to get me rolling again. So goodbye, and good luck in your love-lives.