Fall in love.

When you fall in love, the distinctions and priorities that once clouded your mind no longer matter. Being with that person as much as possible becomes a dream, an obsession. The word ‘obsession’ often has an ill connotation, as if passion and desire are ideals which should be avoided at all costs. But then what is there to live for? If being with someone can pull your heartstrings to the point of no return, if being apart from them can propel you into a state of disarray—not unbearable, but oh-so-treacherous—why shouldn’t we cherish it, fight for it, and claim it as ours? That is not to say that love can ever be one-sided; rather, it is to say that all there truly is to live for—to die for—is each other.

But what about “the big picture?” You know, the bills, the boss, the job, church, Wall Street, the Internet, politics? Unravel every one of these to its core and find the answer for yourself. We occupy our cubicles so that one day we will acheive some “pie-in-the-sky” eternal greatness that we cannot yet fathom. We invest in a system of stocks and bonds that promises to yield returns for our retirement. We fill our brains with nuggets of information that will somehow bring us satisfaction. Yet somehow, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we invest, and no matter how much we know, we are no more fulfilled. What if we ceased our preparations for the future and acted for the moment? Acted for each other, rather than for some faceless abstraction, be it our job, our stocks, or our facts?

That is not to say that we should quit our jobs or stop working altogether. After all, we must provide for our survival. However, in our modern age there is a distinct focus on the intangible. We often find ourselves hanging on to the mental constructions we have fabricated for ourselves, forgetting that everything of significance can be felt in a lover’s touch. Money is the eternal scale by which we evaluate the worth of everything (and often everyone), but those with an overabundance of it are often less fulfilled than those living paycheck to paycheck.

So fall in love. Kisses are cheaper than cars.