You and millions of others just like you have asked this very question through the ages. No wonder, since some people are madly in love, others are obsessed with love, and still others are dying for love. The feeling, if that’s what it is, has inspired many to express themselves through the arts, be it plays, romance novels, dramas, music or poetry.
Now come the scientists to tell us perhaps more than we should know about love. Helen Fisher is one of them, and thanks to TED (Ideas Worth Spreading), she will tell you all about love in less than 16 minutes.
I highly recommend that you explore some of the other offerings posted on TED. They are indeed ideas worth receiving and reflecting upon. This said, as you watch the video, if like me you have been exposed to other cultures, you will note that all her references are strictly of the American type.
Does love manifest itself in similar ways in other cultures? and amongst the poorest of the poor in this world? Mayra Montero says yes… yet she is not a scientist. She speaks from the perspective of a novelist with a keen sense of observation. This is evident in “The red of his shadow,” a novel set among Haitians living in the worker quarters of the sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic. (Note that most of the publicly-owned sugar cane plantations in the Dominican Republic are now idle, but that’s another story that I will deal with at another time).
Here is my review of the novel, which impressed me as having one of the most passionate scenes of seduction. It is however a scene that goes beyond the euphoric feelings that one is subjected to in the throes of passion to reveal the mix of passion and thoughts that dictate human behavior.
I highly recommend the novel for your reading pleasure. Let me know what you think about this and other books that have struck your fancy. We will all be the better for it.
I can’t wait to order it to read it and send you my comments.
I would also highly recommend a very good book “Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir”. The story depicts her life and her family, as political prisoners in a Moroccan jail for 20 years. One gets an insight of royal life amid power and luxury then the lost of all this splendor after political disgrace. Quite insightful and painful to read at times. The story flows quite well.