Reevaluating Intimate Connections

The pursuit of greater confusion by de(con)struction of the individual (gender, sexuality, professional and family function, education, culture, history …) produces an increase in anxiety, while the pursuit of an investigation of the structures of consciousness as Honest and devoted practice, leads to liberation and joy.

Franck Joseph

I have been thinking a lot about the strange concept of romantic love and how it drives so much misery in our culture and leaves so many people open to deception. There is the myth of the protected magic circle of true love between two people which allows them to think in such small terms about their connection to the world as if they can rely upon 1 other person to supply them with all the necessities and joys in life. It is a relationship fraught with danger especially when most people do not even know themselves well enough trust their own judgment in making decisions for their own future. All of this based on a little evidence and feelings that are easily led astray, especially in a culture that worships such relationships more than our relationships to people who provide us with food and keep so many parts of our world running around us and our world and all the pieces of our environment which sustain us.

I am investigating my feelings and experiences with this idea and the nature of my relationships with other people, especially the people I have tried to exist with in a romantic way. I want to find a way to be intimate yet not consumed, to leave my attention open to all that is happening around me and all of the relationships that connect me to the world. No matter how important one other person in my life is I am enveloped in the world, inseparable from it. I can’t escape it into a magical universe that only includes two people or just my family, but it is so easy to fall into that trap and in the end, leaves me open to all kinds of misery trying to control the world to maintain that illusion or the illusion that life has less value without that kind of relationship. My life is always going to be lived in connection with all other life on this planet.