Entry #2 I'm Living in the World's Most Dangerous Place
This entry starts off with a reference to Young Pelton's book, The World's Most Dangerous Place, which discusses dangerous places and how to get there and survive. McManus (not to be confused with Dave McManus, who wrote Monkeying Around With America's Future, which I will expound upon later) relates this to someone whom he wonders "has ever been in love."
He makes a memorable statement here, that says:
"...the only people who can hurt you deeply
are the ones
you allow to
get deep
inside your soul."
He talks correctly about how loving someone makes us vulnerable to getting hurt by that someone -- because we let them into our personal space, those fragile parts of our heart.
"When you give your heart away to someone, you entrust it to that person's care. Your beloved can pretty much do whatever he or she wants with it. You are left vulnerable and defenseless. Isn't love grand? No wonder we're all searching for it."
Nice!
He briefly gives a (purposefully) lame argument against love -- warning us to stay away from it.
He poses a good question, too, which basically asks, "If you could erase the memory of your greatest love to be free from the pain of losing it, would you?" Most of us, he surmises, would not.
"We are addicted to love," he says, "and it's out of control. We would give anything and everything to find it."
Now he's beginning to hold a conspiracy theory about love, like God secretly designed us to crave this "crazy little thing called love."
I'm reminded of another song (that last reference was by the band Queen, by the way ... which always sounded very Elvis to me), which is not "Burning Love" by Elvis, but "We Were Born To Be Loved" by King's X.
King's X is an amazing band that many people have, unfortunately given up on due to the theology of its main vocalist. The problem with that "discard" and "throw away" mentality is that we discount someone and their work as soon as they displease us. This should not be the case. You don't have to agree with a person's worldview to appreciate his or her artistic output. Anyway, this song hits the nail on the head about our created design to love and be loved.
McManus ends this entry with another good quote:
"To give up on love is to choose a life that is less than human.
To give up on love is to give up on life."
Have you ever felt like giving up on love? Have you ever installed "trap doors" upon/around your heart to avoid future pain? It's risky to take those trap doors and discard with the defense mechanisms. It's true -- you might get hurt again. But to retreat will result in a far worse condition, will it not?
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at August 1, 2007 12:06 PM