Arts, Crafts, Music, & Events of Breckinridge County Issue 9, February 2016 | Page 43

Cupid's Eros
by Mark Keller

With what drug, exactly, does Cupid tip his arrows? And
why is it myth carries the notion that Cupid shoots his
victims "in the heart"? It is my estimation that he shoots
his subjects in the brain...because it seems that far too
many of us mortals suffer from "falling in love" as a result
of brain disengagement, reason suspended, and the
"heart" rules.
Is it not true that "love", that twitterpation, obsession-like
compulsion at the "blind love" beginning of many
relationships, is a gift....is a temporary thing that Nature
uses to get couples together? But as the facts of life rein
the couple back into reality, the brain must become reengaged in order to plot-out and execute a realistic plan,
as a couple. Once the "honeymoon is over", the initial
excitement faded, there is a point where the mind must be
reasonable, so the two can work at a rational, cooperative
agreement on how and why they will journey together.
Anything less is just a fling, a decoy a substitute for lasting
love, is it not?
Here, at this Valentine's Day Eve, I suggest that Cupid
aims at the head and not at the heart! There is something
on his arrows that has a numbing, rather than an arousing
effect on the human being. How else can one explain so
few lasting companionships in our culture?
Some years ago, while in a second-hand-bookstore, I was
leaning against the stacks, reading from a paperback by