Consumed

Good morning students and welcome to my class.

This is the first time I have given a lecture, so please go easy on me.
I am here to talk to you about one of my favorite topics: Love.
Now, before you roll your eyes or vigorously bang your head against the wall,
hear me out.
My proposition is simple: Consumptuous Love
(which may resemble a form of torture)
is most similarly related to that of a surgical procedure.
A Patient: The Victim.
A Surgeon: The Agonizer.
Please forgive me if I come off as contemptuous,
but this lecture calls for a bit of cynicism.

Let’s start from the beginning,
Act one: Scene one.
The curtain opens and there they stand.
Happy couple.
Full of light.
Full of hope.
No fear.
Completely consumed.
The vows come first.
The word “forever” slips once or twice.
Full of promise and intent.
“Forever”... what a funny word.


By the time Act one: Scene two rolls around the corner,
things start to change.
Suddenly,
everything becomes a routine.
Simplistic moments become dull,
comfort turns into lack of effort,
and feelings die.
Laughter quakes with miniscule cries from the vacant hollows of her lungs.
Her smile that he finds so beautiful tugs sharply on her cheeks.
And every kiss that she leaves upon his starving lips drips with a concoction of venom and guilt.
Burns appear in each crack and crevice found within the home he built so carefully for her.
All scorched in flames.

Sorry, was that too despondent?
Now, there is no need to cry,
the best part is coming,
so let me finish.


Anyways,
when the curtain falls at the end of the performance,
we can clearly see that the one holding the scalpel is the
surgeon.
(There is a reason why patients are put to sleep during an operation such as this one. Keep that in mind.)
The procedure is simple:
Remove anything and everything that resembles love that you stored inside of the person that you have destroyed,
demolished,
and wrecked.
Now, this might seem quite abhorrent, but what do you expect?
Was yanking out the heart of the person you once loved part of the plan?
Oh, and a note to the patient: It will only hurt more if you resist.
(Listen closely, we’re getting to the good part.)

The pleasures found in love come from the cuts and burns that have touched our skin before.
Consumptuous Love is the most dangerous kind.
It is unpredictable.
Once you are consumed it is almost impossible to see anything like this coming.


But,
Whether it be a broken bone,
a scalpel to the chest,
or a flood that destroys you,
we must allow these disasters to happen.
We must allow ourselves to be consumed by the whirl pool of
inevitability.
Only then can we truly appreciate the Greatest Love.

Remember, this Love may not be found in the next surgeon,
but perhaps the one after that.
The surgeon that learns from the patient just as well as the patient learns to have patience when waiting for the right surgeon.
(Too confusing? Let me try again).
The point is, Love takes time to blossom.
So wait.
Wait until the right surgeon comes along to replace the scalpel with sutures and sew together what has been damaged.


So, to those of you suffering from a broken bone or a vacant chest cavity,
just wait.
The Greatest Love has yet to arrive.
Thank you for listening.