Must Love Make A Fool Of Us?
“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise” -
Samuel Johnson
How could it be otherwise? Love cannot be outsmarted without
loss of innocence and trust, the very qualities that assist it to
flower and bring forth its blissful nectar.
Love is a mighty daimon that can only be tamed to our detriment.
Its function is to enlarge and ennoble, even in it's fateful
tragedies, even as our hearts are broken. Would the unbearable
tenderness of being take root in our souls depths were it otherwise?
And what great songs does foolish love inspire! For example,
“What kind of fool am I, who never fell in love?” Or Joe Jackson’s
classic: “Fools in love, they think they're heroes / Because they
get to feel more pain / I think fools in love are zeroes / I should
know because this fool's in love again.” Then there is the 50’s hit
“Why do fools fall in love?” which gives the definitive answer to
it’s own leading question. As the song says, you may as well ask why
do birds sing so gay, or why does the rain fall from above? It’s
just the way things are.
To build a ‘bridge across forever’, what kind of foolishness is
this? Requirements include a noble heart and a vivid imagination,
true to love. Only heroes, foolish yet wise, need even try.
A wise fool does not give in to fear, not because rejection,
abandonment or betrayal cannot happen - indeed she knows they can -
but because she knows that to allow fear to rule her is to condemn
herself to a loveless, mediocre life of envy and regret.
Yes, it does take courage to live and love with an open heart,
but even if the worst were to happen, a wise fool says ‘thank you,’
even as her heart breaks open, for she knows in her heart of hearts,
it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at
all.
Love is ‘inner sense’, even though it makes no sense that love
is ever new, is always the first time around, is always dangerous
and inherently risky.
Love that is worth the name that is, for shallow and protected
imitations abound. “Someday my prince will come, and we'll live
happily ever after.” Or, “I'll never expose myself to getting hurt
like that again. From now on, I’m keeping my heart safe.”
But a heart that cannot break is a heart of stone, is a heart
that is already dying.
The best defense is no defense, for fear of loss leads to loss.
The very effort to protect against it, only serves to bring it
about. Typical self-defeating strategies include refusing to open
until the other does, or premature insistence on a
commitment.
Fools for love, finally it all comes down
to this: “If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become
wise.” - William Blake.
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