Safe Love

As some of us might have experienced, learned and observed thus far, there are many different styles of "love". 

There is shallow love. Shallow love is not the same as superficial love, however. There is obsessive love. Obsessive love is not the same as deep love, either. There is distant love, there is irrational love, there is unrequited love. There is forbidden love. There is destructive love, crazy love,  lost love, traditional, innocent and pure love.

And then there is safe love. Love of the cautionary kind.

What is it about love that it is able to exist with universal understanding while maintaining so many facets simultaneously? Despite the method of love, one thing can be agreed and rarely argued: that when love is there, regardless of the style, it holds within it the weight of the world. Perhaps this is why after experiencing enough heartbreaks, cautionary love is born.

Cautionary/safe love is tough to criticize. Afterall, it uses rational thought, logic, and objectiveness to come to its conclusions. Thus, the scientist. But even scientists practiced alchemy. One must wonder what love can be if it is completely mapped out and orchestrated with a detailed agenda. Furthermore, how can we predict the future? Would we want to? Is our need for control and certainty worth potentially sacrificing a happiness that, having never experienced it, we were unable to anticipate during our calculations of what a proper love should be in this life?

No risk, no reward. No guts, no glory. It has been said that outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens. Love in and of itself is a magical world of mystery and emotion. A sparkling carnival of unknowns. It is all left to the imagination. But when fear reigns, where can these fantasies take us? Our emotions influence our fate. Love has the power to destroy us or save us, and that is a frightening thing. One must ask oneself if they feel the gamble is worth it.

For myself, if I had a million dollars to put on a one-shot spin on the roulette of love, I would take it. Perhaps that is because I know what I have to give, and I believe there are others like me. And if they are willing to place the same bet on me, how could I live my life wondering what would have happened had I not took a chance on them. Gambling is dangerous, and jackpots are few. But when the jackpot is true happiness for the rest of our short days in this life, how could I turn my back on that? The alternative is to spend the remainder of my days in regret and in imitation of something I wanted that I will never achieve.

So perhaps Bertrand was right.

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness." ~ Bertrand Russell