On Love and War...

Love and war are two sides of the same coin. All are encountered on some level or the other by all individuals, and all have certain rules and axioms necessary to be succesful.

Sun Tzu said that,"All warfare is based on deception." As he continued on this theme, he explained that everything that is done in battle must be made to appear as something else. A displined army must appear to be chaotic, a weak point strong, a strong point weak. In this way you entice your enemy to form his plans based on deceptive information. When he attacks points that he thinks will fall easily, he is met with strength.

On the other side of the coin, I say that true love is based upon the truth. Truth between each other develops trust and comfort. Just as important however, is being true to one's self and emotions. Acknowledging how you feel and acting upon it opens the path for true love and amazing experiences. Trying to deceive yourself about how you feel about someone, will only lead to heartbreak when you are eventually confronted with the truth. I believe that confrontation with the truth is inevitable.

Machiavelli stated: "...men ought to be either well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge." In other words, when you conquer, conquer completely. Leave no room for doubt.

I am of the same mind with love. When you love someone, love them completely. Don't hold back part of yourself for fear of injury, because then, injury is guaranteed. Those who pull back from their lovers because they fear that something may break their hearts, are merely initiating a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you pull away, you are limiting the things that you let yourself feel, and the amount of love that you receive from your partner. This barrier can easily be detected by your love, and since true love knows no barriers, it plants seeds of doubt in your love's heart.

Those who approach battle with fear in their hearts are bound to fall when faced with a fearless foe, but those who approach battle without fear, will conquer. In the same way, those who approach love afraid of injury to their heart will only falter when things become difficult, but those who approach love unafraid have the opportunity to take full advantage of all of the gifts it can give. But how do men approach battle without fear in their heart? They do it by knowing that they are fighting for something greater than themselves. Some fight for freedom, others their homes, but the fearless are fighting for something. In the same way, those who approach love without fear in their hearts are able to do it because they are in it for a reason, the most noble reason of all: the sake of the one that they love. These people can face any challenge.


*Many of these concepts began to become concrete to me while I was at LTC facing many challenges, but events as of late really drove home their truth to me. I've always been a bit of a philosopher but I rarely present my ideas in as organized a fashion as this.