I dream of a love that is more than two people craving to possess one another.
Irvin D. YalomRead
To love in the sense of passion-love is the contrary of to live. It is an impoverishment of one's being, an askesis without sequel, an inability to enjoy the present without imagining it as absent, a never-ending flight from possession.
Interpretation
True passion can sometimes lead to a depletion of present enjoyment, creating a longing for what is absent.
In this quote, Denis De Rougemont explores the idea that passionate love can consume an individual's entire being, leading to a state of lacking fulfillment in the present moment. This form of love, rather than enhancing life, often diminishes it by instilling a sense of perpetual longing and an inability to fully appreciate what one has, as the mind continuously retreats into fantasies of unattained desires.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about romantic relationships and the nature of passion.
I dream of a love that is more than two people craving to possess one another.
But maybe you never really had someone, she thought now. Maybe, no matter how much you loved them, they could slip through your fingers like water, and there was nothing you could do about it.
I think it's wonderful when a love story begins with a great deal of romance and affection, passion and excitement, that's how it should be. But I don't necessarily know that it's the wisest thing in the world to expect that it ends there, or that it should, 30 years down the road, still look as it did on the night of your first kiss.
So sweep away the sand an' dry the ocean, an' just pack the moon an' stars up in a cardboard box. And stop the clouds from chimin', block the sun from shinin',an' paint the sky a deeper shade of blue, 'cause my world's over without you.
This is love: to fly toward a secret sky
Emerson said, Do you love me? means Do you see the same truth?-Or at least, "Do you care about the same truth?
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