The Platonic Lovers

Remember how he scammed me on this day exactly one year ago? Remember that stupid and embarrassing post? Yeah, he punk'd me again today!!! I texted him this morning saying "Hey, sunday morning." Then he replied telling me bullship about him being at the hospital waiting to be operated. He told me that he has been sick since 2009 and had been meaning to tell me all this while. At first, memang la I thought that this must be another April Fool prank from him. Some more, he said he had been diagnosed with "KETUMBUHAN DI DADA". Hahahahahaha stupidddddd.... Tapi bila dia cakap "Wish me luck k. 8 jam ni. Me belum makan dari semalam sebab mau operation kan." Terus aku ntahlah, I somehow bought it? Paluiiii....... Cam besak la dia kasi ketawa aku lagi. Shipppppp....... Hahahahaha gulliblenya akuuuuuu urrgghhhh.... Hahaha. But... today's prank was not the same like last year's... It is obvious that there is nothing going on between us anymore now. I was the one who ended it anyway. We are friends now. Just friends. Or is this what people call platonic love? By the way, here's an interesting article about platonic relationship I stumbled upon. I think it truly describes the situation I am in right now. If there is a situation at all. Hahaha. Kalau aku rajin nanti aku translate. My favourite parts are in bold. :)

Love Beyond Body Physics

by Ragini Puri

In the film Yuva, Ajay Devgan, a practical man, emphatically explains to a visibly romantic Esha Deol that love is nothing but procreation. It is an urge to procreate, a form of sexual gratification, which just happens to be good for the survival of a species. This need for satisfaction of the physical or rather sexual urges comes veiled in the garb of an emotion called love. According to him, it was this physical or sexual attachment and not love that was actually responsible for the couplings that result in progeny and further the human race. So, love is nothing but procreation. Period.

But the idea of another type of love, as conceived by Plato, the Platonic love, has also been the subject of countless poems and books. In modern times, the terms platonic love and platonic relationship have come to mean a relationship between individuals of the opposite sex, marked by the absence of physical romance or sex. Ambrose Bierce, or Bitter Bierce as the world calls this American satirist, may define Platonic love as 'a fool's name for the affection between disability and a frost', but his philosophical treatment of love transcends a variety of theories of sex and gender.

A traditional and conservative society like ours looks on platonic relationships with suspecting eyes. It wonders whether in a friendship, physical attraction between the friends of opposite sex can be sidestepped, whether platonic relationships (love and friendship without sexual alliance) can exist between a man and a woman. What they fail to understand is that platonic love is actually the sublimation of sexual urges into other forms of desires and attraction. It is love that looks beyond physical bodies to pure thoughts and intellectual stimulation. Thyra Samter Winslow is right when she says, 'Platonic love is from the neck up.'

Platonic lovers are not impulsive lovers. They aren't physical, but are characterized by being more emotional and intellectual than passionate. Friendship or love of this type, like other relations, is based on the pleasure that is derived from each other's company, but the relationship here is predominated by thoughts and imagination. The love doesn't live outside but inside. Platonic love, in which the loved person is idealized, is part of a dream. With the platonic love, the people idealize one person in the fantasy of the thoughts, with feelings of love, in a very creative way. This love builds an illusion in a no-love world of disillusion and it is this love, which has inspired poets and artists of all time.

People may scoff at platonic lovers and compare them to inactive volcanoes, but such lovers do not condemn sexuality or the erotic, neither do they deny that platonic love is only possible outside sexual relations. Platonic love is actually a spiritual bond between two people of the opposite sex, wherein they are attracted to each other's mind. But the reason why platonic love or friendship can be difficult is plain genetics. In most of us, attraction to the opposite sex is genetically woven into our psyche. There's no way to avoid it. Friendship between the same sex can be relatively hassle-free, but one between opposite sex may be infused with sexual undercurrents. Nothing makes a romantic relationship more successful when the people involved are friends first, and it is easy to understand why platonic relations can be difficult to keep strictly platonic.

28-Nov-2004