Romance
Hey Stoic gangsters,
I hope you had a lovely day. :)
Tomorrows Event:
The Stoic Hustle Prototype #1. June 9th. Starting time: 10:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
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June 8, 2020
I loved Richard Linklater’s BeforeTrilogy with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. There is this line that is alive for me from Jesse, Ethan Hawke’s character, from my favorite film in the trilogy, Before Sunset: "I feel like if someone were to touch me, I'd dissolve into molecules."
Later in the film …
Celine: "So, I want to try something.
Jesse: "What?"
Celine: [hugs him] "I want to see if you stay together or if you dissolve into molecules."
Jesse: "How am I doing?"
Celine: "Still here."
Jesse: "Good, I like being here."
I dig this and I relate to it. I feel like I am ready to dissolve into molecules, if I am touched in the right way. The other day Daniel was teasing me, but also appreciating me, on how I have this unapologetic romantic side. I am a Stoic, which means I am a man of reason, but I am also ready to sacrifice reason, and romantically rationalize that it is sometimes reasonable to be unreasonable.
There is a mild concern that I will be judged by my dudebro friends, and seem like a spiritual beta male to them, but I do not think I am one. I think it is more accurate to say that I am in love with the felt-sense of romance. I do not want to masturbate to love stories. I want to make love in a way that inspires a story people want to tell.
Being inspired by romance and inspiring romance in others is a good skill set to have. It not only makes you more fun to be around, but it also motivates you to play the metagame well, especially when it gets dangerous to do so. I just looked up the dictionary definition of romance and I liked what I saw: "an emotional attraction or aura belonging to an especially heroic era, adventure, or activity."
Fucking eh. Adventure without romance is a neutered promise. Romance demands the kind of hero who risks dissolving into molecules at the right touch.
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