So who are you falling in love with? Who's doing the falling? Who's the beloved? Carl Jung spoke to falling in love with the idea of the Shadow. You reject and repress those things so precious to you--so deeply apart of yourself and kept hidden away; aching to return. Then without warning you discover someone so breathlessly perfect. But completely unlike what you normally find acceptable--feels like coming home. Who is this strange person you don't know? You're falling in love and you don't know what's been done.
Jung also talked about the Archetypes: Anima & Animus. Parts inside that move and lead in ways that surprise and awaken you. Strangely embodying the opposite--gender, values, purpose--your conscious self struggles for different things in the every-day-world.
Parachute encapsulates this idea in, She Is Love. The one alienated deep inside trying to wake you up. Falling in love is one way to awaken: I've been beaten down, I've been kicked around, But she takes it all for me. And I lost my faith, in my darkest days, But she makes me want to believe. They call her love, love, love, love, love. Steven Sonderbergh's 2002 film: Solaris, based on Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel, gives a taste of this encounter with the other.
Each relationship is an invitation to understand yourself as much as it is to understand the other. Each relationship is a summons to be in the world. An offer to heal--and learn the path of love set out for you.
How does love surprise you? When is the struggle to love another a path to understand the one inside you?
Hey! check out AM 1470 9:00 to 11:00 am. I'll be chating next Saturday about dating, love, and relationships, with the hosts of A Firm Foundation, Toledo's #1 Saturday morning talk radio show.
