A two-way love 7

Nowadays, in our time, people talk about everything and nothing. Overnight, people become experts; they criticize, they judge. Attention is at the heart of a game, a spiral, a center of gravity around which love, passion, fear, trauma, and loneliness revolve. Being too invested is seen as a sign of weakness; emotions and feelings blur together until we can no longer distinguish truth from fiction.

​Juliette: Melissa, what’s wrong, sweetheart? Is something bothering you?

​Melissa: No Mom, I’m fine. It’s nothing, I’m just a bit tired.

​Juliette: Alright, enough! Stop lying to me. Don’t forget that I’m your mother, that I’m twice your age, and that I’m the one who brought you into this world. So I know when something is wrong. Come on, tell me!

​Melissa: Fine, since you insist. There’s this boy I know, his name is Max—handsome, kind, smart, and respectful. We had a date, just the two of us, but I called to cancel at the last minute. I got scared. Now I feel a bit guilty.

​Juliette: I understand the situation. You know I would never forbid you from having friends or a boyfriend, but you know our family rules, so there’s no real need to remind you how it works. Who you can bring into this family and who you cannot. And as for your so-called friend, you have to ask yourself just one question: If he were truly important to you, would you have canceled at the last minute?

​Loneliness is a human feeling akin to emptiness or nothingness, a torture of the mind and soul. It is the nemesis of reason, standing at the crossroads of silence and non-existence. What wouldn’t we do just to avoid feeling alone? That sense of emptiness, so deep within the being it inhabits, where a simple smile resonates like the explosion of a star. It is frightening sometimes when you stare it down; not learning to live with it means being unable to face it. It is formidable, for in a brief moment of silence, it is capable of bringing back your fears, your traumas, your deepest buried thoughts, but also your nightmares.