Florante at Laura

“O pagsintang labis ang kapangyarihan,
Sampung mag-aama’y iyong nasasaklaw
Pag ikaw ang nasok sa puso ninuman
Hahamakin ang lahat masunod ka lamang.”
- Francisco Balagtas, 1788-1862


Aaah Love! (deep sigh) Hmmmm…. I’ve memorized the quote when I was in high school and never forget it since. I love to fall in love and loved many times. For if the essence of life is love, then I have lived a hundred lives. It’s nice to read the blog with background music of Rod Stewart’s “Love Hurts.”


Was Guinevere right to kiss Lancelot? Is it fair to love someone but marry another? Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is YES. It has something to do with the unique configuration of our brain romantic love and attachment to someone is activated from different region of our brain – they are independent of each other. Consequently we could love someone and then spend the rest of our life with another person.


Helen Fisher, anthropologist and well-known love researcher from Rutgers University, says that "...The human body releases the cocktail of love rapture only when certain conditions are met and ... men more readily produce it than women, because of their more visual nature. ….this fire in the mind is caused by elevated levels of either dopamine and phenylethylamine or norepinephrine or both, as well as decreased levels of serotonin."


What the heck are these chemicals? Sure don’t know what they are but I would appreciate it much if somebody can give me a shot of serotonin to counteract the increasing dopamine and “whatever chemicals” that’s messing up my neurons lately.


Romantic love originates close to the part of your brain that controls your heartbeat, breathing, and other internal organs. This happens in the subconscious part of our brain – the reason why we sometimes fall in love with the wrong person. As they say we can never choose whom to love. It is love who chooses for us and we can only hope that the person it chooses love us back. This is the most nerve wracking experience of all. We go to high heavens or pawn our soul to the devil if only our beloved will return our feeling. The passion for love is greater than hunger. How sorrowful can it be when our love is never acknowledged? Unrequited love is state of being that I dare not even venture to explain for words are not enough to describe the depths of anguish that we go through. Why do we have to suffer for something that’s beyond our control? Only God knows for “the heart has reason that reason cannot know.”


How do we tame our unruly heart? We can’t… We just can’t… We really can’t… I’ve tried and failed – a lot of times at that. Sorry to disappoint you folks but that’s the way life is. We just have to sit it down, wait and cross our fingers that the chemical imbalances in our brain subside soon.


However, there is a way to trick the brain out of our own misery. The brain cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy it’s the five senses that makes that distinction. By constant daydreaming of our beloved we somehow fulfill the wishes of our subconscious mind and thus minimize the damage. The key is to make one’s action innocuous while under the spell of love.


Hope it works.
I’ve tried it,
Was a bit successful,
I sure look stupid.
But hey, what can’t kill you can make you stronger…..