Large Fierce Mammal

Say the words “True Love” in front of an audience of any size, and everybody will understand what you mean. Except they won’t. Today, a lot of meaning is lost to the subjectively unique and emotionally fraught mental sieves perceptions are filtered through, and that includes the word “understand”.

Before going further then, let’s define what I mean when I use the term True Love —

“Throughout this series I’ve applied the title of “dark sentiment” to a variety of emotions, events, human acts, portrayals, and situations. Tonight we’ll talk about the darkest sentiment of all – True Love.

“True Love is the darkest of sentiments both because it has the power to motivate those blessed enough to be possessed by it to the performance of feats that are incomprehensible to the great unwashed, and because, in its truest form, it does not exist to most of the world. In that, it is truly dark because True Love is only understood by the few who are granted its epiphany by the Gods. I speak in absolutes here because I, and my beloved Mrs. LFM, are so possessed.

“If you’ve ever truly loved a Dog you’ve experienced True Love. To understand True Love you must first grasp the one thing that seems anathema to it – the fact that all living things must die. While I myself intend to live forever or die trying, the aforementioned fact is one of the Great Truths of the Universe. One that any mature being must embrace with an open heart or be forever doomed to doubt, misery, and the hell of the hesitant.

“Many will contest that statement, and to them I will point out that likewise, many do not know whether their asshole is bored or punched. Nay, ignore the clamourings of the ignorant good reader, and hark instead to my words, consorting not with those who will remain ignorant of True Love in perpetuity. True Love is not of the realm of the touchy feely nor is it born of gonads and strife. It has nothing to do with saving kittens from drowning, nor children from bullies. It has nothing to do with good or evil, although it can be a force for either. It is actually a fundamental power of Nature that, like Glinda the Good Witch, can only be underestimated at your peril.

“True Love is passionately fierce on a primal level, and no mating pair possessed of its power can be defeated. The best an enemy can do is kill them. Both of them, for to leave one alive is to guarantee doom. A Man blessed as I, and a Woman blessed as Mrs. LFM, lives every moment, sleeping soundly at night, in the certainty that there is only one other Human in the world who can be relied upon in any hour of need – one’s Mate. That in the inevitable cycles and evolutions of life, the waning of strength on the part of one will inevitably be compensated for by the waxing of strength in the other because their souls are intertwined and in balance. True Friendship is comparable, but its power does not even come close to True Love because True Love generates its own power.” ~ Dark Sentiments Season 1 — Day 28

If your own life experience leaves you ill equipped to grasp the enormity of this, let me offer you these nine simple rules:

1. Nobody owes you anything, no matter how good your argument or large your sense of entitlement. So fuck you and your passions.
2. You may never find love, let alone True Love.
3. True Love is not exclusive to those who meet whatever arbitrary beauty standard may prevail at the time.
4. Satisfying and successful relationships based on good old garden variety love can last a lifetime absent True Love because most people believe it only exists in fairy tales and fantasy.
5. Love can only become True Love after it has come to be unreservedly reciprocated.
6. Reciprocation cannot be forced or rushed, and may never happen. Keep rereading this line until you understand it.
7. True Love is not unconditional! To find it and keep it demands worthiness of the gift, and for this to be maintained requires Love of the self. The you that was first judged by the Universe as worthy at the start must recognize, revel in, and cultivate that same worthiness until Death lays Her hand upon you.
8. It will end … with caveats … but more on that in future days.
9. Always carry a knife. (Note: This is a basic rule of Life that applies to all situations, included here because True Love is a subset of the greater whole called “All Situations”. Also because I maintain it as a fundamental Truth of civilized conduct that a Gentleman must be, at all times and in every respect, prepared to entertain a Lady.)

Where once the rules of sound and reasoned cognition were taught and expected to be applied in social intercourse, this era too often sees all that tossed aside in favour of the “right” of the individual to follow his or her own passions absent consequences no matter how much they may depart from demonstrably successful and more fulfilling methods. The adage that if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll always get what you always got is, and forever will be, True, and this applies with equal rigour whether actions and the thoughts governing them are perfectly sound or decidedly otherwise. This vorpal blade is perfectly happy to cut both ways, and doesn’t care who it kisses or who it eviscerates. It cares not where you stand when it traverses its graceful arc, so whether you come to be kissed or gutted Goode Reader, is completely on you.

Here’s Nat King Cole to sing us out.