peace

while this tale is quite clever verbally and worth a few chuckles, i find that this sort of thinking about love has been quite damaging to both men and women especially in regards to so called romantic love. true love is not accompanied by madness nor is it blind. real love offers us insight and intuitive vision of ourselves, our beloved, our world. with true love one is open and vunerable but not crazy. this idea of love/madness/blindness has spawned a societal acceptance of possessiveness and obsession as love, physical and emotional abuse, crimes of passion etc, because when in love we are supposed be irrational, nuts, taken over. but that is fear and insecurity not love that inspires such behavior.

many men who think of love as madness are then afraid to surrender to the truth and power of love because they feel they will have to sacrifrice rational thinking and be out of control. or they are very comfortable with expressing a macho bullying control over their female partner then they deem this as love. yet love should be about choosing healing and honestly facing the self as your own spirit is reflected by another. it should not be the wild strangle hold on the freedom of another or the self.

some women as well use this madness idea to validate their passive acceptance of abuse or their desperate attempts for affection/attention. again more fear than love.

then there are the parents who use this idea to wield the havoc of absolute domination and violence on the lives of their children and say its because they love them ...

and what of the ever crucial foundation of self love? are we crazy and blind when we honor ourselves? i think not. the fact that this fable can not be applied to self love shows this kind extra-externalizing of love and the rejection of the self responsibilty which serve as anchors for true love.

love reveals the truths that may be difficult to admitt but the truths that are necessary for our growth. love may be a struggle but it is not madness, love's tendency to push us towards change may be frightening at times, but as in any great birthing, the rewards are usually wonderous and worth the discomfort and pain. if we overstand love to be a divine experience then it most certainly shouldn't be related to the limiting notions of insanity created by the fearful mortal mind.

these parables reveal much of our conditioning.