Fantastical Yearning

After reading an amazing short story "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri and observing a few of my friends recent experiences...I can't help but ramble on about the notion of "desire". (Yes, ramble. So bare with me.) Here it goes..

Human desire is both fascinating and frustrating, the entanglement of mind and emotion; what it means to want someone or something so badly, even though what you desire may in fact not be that person or thing at all. I think desire is divided into "subtexts", external and internal. Often, what you desire externally is different from what you desire internally. For example: externally, you want your boyfriend to be on time for dinner. Internally, you want him to appreciate your time and effort; you want him to appreciate you more. Internally, you have been bubbling with anger for a while now yet only address "the obvious".

Sometimes our imaginations can run away with us to a better place, time, or circumstance. You imagine a different story or outcome for yourself, you think "Hey, I can change these circumstances. I can change this person. I can make them better. I can make them fit". Maybe you see something in someone that isn't there anymore or perhaps that was never there at all. You claw at a new lover, hoping they have a particular personality trait. You lecture your friend, time and time again, to be more punctual. You ignore the warning signs of unhappiness because you are so damn convinced it will turn around. When a friend, partner, or family member doesn't understand something that is "so fucking simple", you withdraw or perhaps get angry.

Desire is a powerful thing. An intangible thing until you step back and asses the feeling(s) for yourself; and decode the external to the internal. Aristotle declared that the nature of a persons desire determines the nature of their morality. The quality of yearning for something - the power of desire - truly makes us catch our breath, hope for the best, fear the worst, and think the impossible. Without desire, we wouldn't feel our toes curl after an organism, we wouldn't have sparks of determination, we wouldn't take nearly as many risks, and perhaps we wouldn't indulge in as many selfish acts; the list goes on. And quite frankly, I don't think we would be very human without it.