Love: Musings One.

Almost a month ago now. (february is trending as a nuts month)

I was involved in another event at School of Life.
#Modern Love was an event curated by Four and a Half Walls, an event exploring love today.

It’s something on my mind. Communication, feminism, life balance, independence, ethical family and living habits, our expectations.

I read Roman Krzanic’s book Wonder Box last year. It gave me an insite into the different sorts of love, and how we expect to find all of them in one person. For a bemusing smile and introduction to this theory watch this:

Fairytales may have a lot to answer for. Wouldn’t this information be more useful in childhood?

Part of this is personal. Of course. Turning 30, single.
Do I still believe in the love I believed in 10 years ago? I’m not sure.

As part of #modernlove I curated the hArtefact Museum. A place to air those items under the bed, back of drawers and hidden from sight. Those items from past loves…

We did a call out to those attending to bring something with them, and I was truly amazed at the amount of people who did. It seems its something people really want to do. Give acknowledgement to these “useless” items.

We had over 60 contributions. And reading them, it was hard not to believe in the all encompassing, everything sort of love. To see them all go here.

What I saw in this project was in stark contrast to the social trend I see evolving rejecting sentimentlity, an openness to polyamory and attempting to understand love with science lenses on.

Chemistry:
“In romantic love, when two people have sex,oxytocin is released…when it is released during orgasm, it begins creating an emotional bond — the more sex, the greater the bond” More information.

Evolution:
“No group-living nonhuman primate is monogamous, and adultery has been documented in every human culture studied- including those in which fornicators are routinely stoned to death. In light of all of this bloody retribution, it’s hard to see how monogamy comes “naturally” to our species. Why would so many risk their reputations, families, careers- even presidential legacies- for something that runs against human nature? Were monogamy an ancient, evolved trait characteristic of our species, as the standard narrative insists, these ubiquitous transgressions would be infrequent and such horrible enforcement unnecessary.

No creature needs to be threatened with death to act in accord with its own nature.”
― Christopher Ryan, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

The role of feminism:
(yet to find some good reading material on this..) But has the role of feminism been adopted by females, but men are yet to catch up? Of course there are exceptions to the rule. But are both sides of a relationship ready for equality. Really.

The nuclear family:
How is living in a house with two kids, and a backyard possibly environmentally sustainable?

I can feel a new work exploring these issues coming on…musings one of more me thinks.

x