In The Valley of Death…
The title is hyperbolic, to say the least, but similarly apropos…to a degree. I have been in a bit of a funk lately, and I’ve let if fester because it has provided the singleness of vision I needed to start working on a new short story. I suppose a mildly depressive state isn’t the best condition for anyone. I have, however, tempered it with plenty of time with friends. Wine, women, and song, sans the women—and for very good reason.
In the moments in between meditating on my story, I’ve been reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and trying to come to some better understanding of love and friendship. The following quote popped out at me:
But finding enjoyment in the form of the other does not mean that one loves him; this happens only when one longs for him in his absence and wants him to be there
Learning to love seems to be the realization that that ping you feel in someone’s presence isn’t enough; you’ve got to feel it when they’re gone too. So, be careful that you don’t run into someone that doesn’t quite get this, because they’re more apt to run back to pleasure than they are toward you, even if—in those times when you are absent—thoughts of you arise like a splendid sunrise.
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