The Consequences of Loving Too Much

When unconditional love demands compromise beyond reason, even the most poetic hearts can suffer.

- Aisha Hasnain

I have put down the book that I was so dearly gifted by a friend - White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Fy-odor (I prefer to call him for a more humanly touch than the scholarly Dostoevsky) was 26-27 years old when this novella by him got published in 1848. The Dreamer, the main character and the narrator of the story, is also 26 years old.

Another friend who is not fond of reading, I was astonished to know, had read White Nights long before | did. Such literature can be captivating. The narration by Dreamer in the story is full of beautiful and poetic, very poetic, literary devices. But such fiction if only could be treated as mere fiction written for leisurely purposes. Instead, we see ourselves in the protagonist. There are hazards to this kind of dreaming, daydreaming. You replace your reality with an impractical, unreal and untruthful world for yourself and sometimes against other people in your life. Take it from someone who has been there and back.

Take, for instance, sweet sixteen Arooja with that dreamy imagination. Recently, this teen was rejoicing at the nickname, Noori or something, that the Al application in her phone has given her. It was scary to hear her speak about how she talks to it and how it reminds her in the evening that it was time for a certain scheduled task.

Clearly, Al won't cheat, it won't complain and it won't criticize. In short, it doesn't challenge you. This is also the reason why it has become easier to adopt pets instead of humans. Human connections are complicated, especially if we do not understand the concept of individualism and that not being in sync all the time with the other person is perfectly okay. But humans need each other and that is an inevitable truth. After all, at the end of the day, humans are tribal animals.

How many problems can we solve if we understand basic human emotions and accept that some of the intoxicating ones come at the cost of our precious dignity?