Homo hominibus lupus est, we said in school. One of those sentences that you learn at a time when you grow a little pretentious, shortly before you discover love; about the time you make up theories of the Universe after dinner or write poetry or compose songs in the bohemiam room of your friend's house, which is always more interesting that your own; again shortly after you start paying attention to his eldest sister. Homo hominibus lupus est, yeah, like pares cum paribus facilime congregantur or nihil sapientiae acumine nimio, or carpe diem or mutatis muntandis, or muntadi sunt mores or Gallia est omnia divisa in partes tres or si vis perfectus esse, abneget semetipsum. You also had aquila non capit muscas, a clever one, but it has no glamour, you will reckon, and was more for bad students.
The beauty of Homo hominibus lupus est is that it holds an enduring truth. Millenniums have gone by and it remains true; it will be for ever, that is an undeniable question. A man stops being a man when a part of him rebels. He becomes a hunted man, a shadow in disgrace, a dim reflection; and his wolf lures in the dark, biding its time to bite and tear, rip and sink its fangs into your flesh, and does it regularly, mining the strength and courage of the parted man, sucking his salvia, emptying his veins.
Imagine such a man. Take the whole thing in a very literate manner, imagine a werewolf. A werewolf-man on the down road to its self-annihilation. But be merciful and imagine that loves comes around and strike like an earthquake the bones of this wrecked creature. Think of any werewolf, anyone you know, think of Jack Nicholson, for example. He is able to love -love is always the last human attribute to die-, but the beast in him is caged in fragile bars, as Johnny Cash sang. And he says to his lover: "listen to me, you have to run away from me, I don't want you to be here, stay away from me".
Now, imagine a woman in the same circumstances.
A woman can be parted and be a beast against herself, so it is not hard to imagine. However, a woman would never say to her lover "stay away from me". That is probably what the man should do, will be an excellent choice for him, but will have terrible consequences for the women-wolf.
Do you know what I think a woman says to her lover in such tribulations?
It says: "Oh, darling, please, darling, never let me go". Never let me go!
That is the most terrible thing a woman can say to you. You might rip her panties off, but she will tear your whole apart, you will spend the rest of your days gluing the crumbs of your doomed heart. You get in love with such an animal and the sky with stars and all on it will come upon you. The tragedy is, though, that the only redemption is to never let her go, she won't be content otherwise. She needs you, you are her lifeboat. And she knows. She will take the short-term pleasures and the karma in the long, while your fate will be pain and struggling, night and day, day an night; your only true pleasures, just a few words from here once in a while, which will taste like gallons of fresh water in the desert. But no more.
Believe it or not, when I see (or used to see) the advertisement of the movie "Never let me go", based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, that is -the last paragraph- what I think (used to think) about.
And still, will such sacrifice be worthy?
What will you sacrifice your life for?
For love?
I have had to attend a few courses and seminars on safety issues in the last months and they tell you that a reason for security is of moral type: it is immoral to have people hurting themselves at work. I reserve my whole opinion about that for another time but, you know, I like it more when people actually takes every single thing they do as life, so life is spent, wasted!, and do not need to care to spare for anything else, when you have something to exchange your life for, something to kill or to die for (sorry, Mr. Lennon, I disagree entirely with you), when you are accept your getting older, worn-out as life... Like The Terminator, being torn apart as its life progresses, but always fully focused and oriented.
Again, what will you sacrifice your life for?
(PLEASE, LEAVE YOUR COMMENT).
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