Don't look too closely, love
On a scale of "I'd-die-for-you romance" to "Hinge makes me feel spiritually ran through", what is your outlook on love?
When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.
—Martin Buber
There was a time when love was dumb and beautiful. It held prolonged eye contact across a crowded room. It happened while you were stuck beside them on a five-hour flight. It didn’t consult your preferences. It was the preference, indescribable and inconvenient, the way rain prefers to pour on the day you forget your umbrella.
Information (too much, too soon) deletes Eros, the spirit of love. Romance requires a blurriness, be it distance or the veil of naivety. We all want serendipity, but meet cutes don’t happen on the apps, matchmaking services, or anything else that starts with data because Eros doesn’t like being seen—this is what happens in the Greek myth: when Psyche lifts a lamp to look at her lover’s face while he sleeps, they are split up and she is cursed to never see him again.
We didn’t want to kill Eros, we just wanted to know what he means. So, we a…