Concerning Love: A Trinidadian Enlightening [Spoken word]

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CONCERNING LOVE
By Daniella Candice Brown

"Come join me and let's take one step away from the unemotional, the stoic, the passive. And let's connect with that proverbial leg sticking out to trip our sleepwalking feet.

"We can always do better. Being truly contented is overrated. Conflict, whether internal or external, is what drives us. We wither without it. So don't accept your flaws. Actively work to fix them. If they can't be fixed, then it's not a flaw, it's a handicap. Just as the blind man is handicapped, not flawed. So still improve everything else, just as the blind man amplifies his four other senses. It is incumbent upon us to be conflicted but we must make sure that the duration of the process, and not just the swift resolution of these conflicts, will make us better people and make our environments better.

"And what better conflict than love? The most intriguing thing about love, whether it be a seed, a sapling or a great oak tree, is how brittle it can be. Look at the toxic substances that can kill love: boredom, distance, misplaced curiosity, one-too-many forgotten dates, a petty reciprocation that never occurs, an unspoken word, a misspoken word. But love isn't the answer. Instead, love is the brilliant light bulb that appears over your head when the solution, in that unpronounceable form, comes into your mind and makes you jubilant before you can word it into a proper essay to score full marks in your examination.

"And love isn't a tree. The tree is what the love sprouts into, for love is simply the wind-borne seeds from a fruit, from a flower of that tree swooping over hills and valleys that alight on your soils and only a few of those seeds would sprout. Don't make yourself out to be a wasteland, or none of the seeds will. It does not start with love. It starts with you. You are the foundation. And when you nurture your seed into a sapling and eventually into a great tall oak tree, you will need not only platoons, but armies upon armies of termites to help tear it down.

"I wish we could love each other until it hurts. I wish we could unlock hidden chambers in our hearts and let it gush golden blood like manna from heaven. Heaven; in the ashes scattered from an alabaster vase over the ocean in some seaside village; or where the cross-breezes ruffle the feathery Poui trees in Port of Spain; or in a dilapidated, deserted church of which bells are still activated by phantom night breezes.

"My personal heaven used to be a pond that is so at peace with itself, you can hear the fish nipping at the crest. But I do not grow from that and I would sooner opt for rivers that run so turbulent and so deep that it converts you from atheist to believer to atheist to believer to atheist. I'd prefer one that is not a closed-off escape from everything else. Which is what we all opt for a lot of the time when it comes to romantic love, isn't it? Behind the shut doors of a silky bedroom of a private palace or an isolated beach or on a magic carpet. or at the top of a Ferris Wheel, where nobody can reach you and where you can pick the stars like glowing flowers.

"Safe from all the bad things. Fear is in this love without confidence in the other and confidence in yourself. And then you begin fearing each other. and you begin asking those questions: Will she leave me? Will he be a good father? What will our biggest fight be like? Will we still be having sex in thirty years? A festering, perpetual mind-stroll that leads down the lane inhabited by copies of yourself that are only able to say one thing, "I wonder if  I am good enough?" You ARE good enough!

"The only gauges or measuring units there are for comparing human characteristics is the one embedded in your head. Except for perhaps the absolute zeros, there is no objective unit for intellect, kindness and talent. Whether or not you think showing everything that you are might not be enough, that's all you have. That's ALL YOU HAVE. And it's yours, so love it deeply.

"And no matter what, don't celebrate it too much, don't feel too happy with anything unless you feel like you have earned it. Never give up. The face of adversity is an ugly one and it's simply jealous of your pretty face. Keep rolling the dice and you will eventually pass "Go" and collect your two hundred dollars. There is no honest ball, no matter how fast or how curved, anyone can pitch to you that you can't knock out of the stadium with the meat of your bat. If it's a foul ball and the referee refuses to acknowledge this, this is where you take a stand and you get the crowd to rally and jeer with you, "I won't let my team be cheated!"

"All in all, don't forget to listen. Be fair to yourself, help people up when they fall, say "Thank you." to clerks, they have a hard job. Step over banana peels, be aware of drunk drivers, please  and remember that there are men and women out there, across the gaps of geography and translation, that breathe a sigh for you in some foreign language before they fall asleep.

"And most of all there are always seeds out there zipping past the Parthenon, the Pampas and the Pacific just for you... that will never even soar anywhere close to you. But you should be glad that they even exist, that they're out there and knowing that you and some other people are both gazing at the same sea of stars with the same yearning, not feeling like little people, but realizing how vast the universe is and knowing at least that they exist. And if they were to meet you, they would think you are fabulous just the way you are. They have hurt themselves being in love with you and loving you to pieces without  ever having met you.

"And most of all, don't forget your seed needs four things to grow: good soil, fresh air, sunny days and rainy days.

Because the world needs more big, healthy trees."

Source: Concerning love. with edits to match the video version. ..............................................................................................................................  

 

A Note From The Gull

Thank you very much, Daniella Candice Brown.  I will be thinking about this.

"We can always do better. 

Being truly contented is overrated. 

Conflict, whether internal or external, is what drives us. 

We wither without it."

 "My personal heaven used to be a pond that is so at peace with itself, 

you can hear the fish nipping at the crest. 

But I do not grow from that and I would sooner opt for rivers 

that run so turbulent and so deep that it converts you 

from atheist to believer to atheist to believer to atheist. 

I'd prefer one that is not a closed-off escape from everything else."

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare