WITHOUT LOVE

B. McGILLICUDDY

I often do things 'out of "love"'.

A series of impulses dictate these actions. Chemicals, if you will, cause these things to happen. 'Love' as it is so hopefully called, is an abstraction encompassing any series of the following feelings/statements, all of which are derived from the food that one eats and the drugs that one ingests and the poisons that go undigested and lay, dormant in one's body, to bring about one's doom.

Let's start broad, shall we?

'I love you.'
Absurd. Making a statement like this is irresponsible at worst and should be taken as a joke at best. The parameters for making such a boast are at all times completely unfounded because the 'feeling' of love in that moment can constitute nothing in the realm of taking any additional action to 'prove' one's love, unless one is about to die, at which point 'love' would be 38.46783% more useless.

'This is so romantic.'
Romanticism is the broadest of broad concepts and is often surrounded by a series of falsities, embellishments, and abstractions regarding events that would otherwise simply be considered 'stupid', 'irresponsible', or 'abusive'.

'Let's have sex.'
Sex is one of the few types of interaction that does not require or typically result from verbal instigation, and by no means implies 'love', though it is often seen as an accompanying act and a sign of one's 'feelings', the desire to engage in sex can just as easily result from a combination of aphrodisiacs, alcohol consumption, or the 'if there is no "no", all systems go' principle. 'Making love' on the other hand, is a highly emotional form of human bonding that if only committed to once or if carried on beyond the actual foundational impulses driving the act, can result in maniacal and socially compromising behavior.

'Will you marry me?'
The desire to engage in a legal contract with another person for the purpose of making sure they cannot leave you without judicial authorization is fucked, unless a couple has copulated, resulting in healthy offspring, and would be able to provide a comfortable living situation for the child. Any other reasoning for engaging in this sort of entanglement should be considered mutually self-serving and otherwise 'reckless behavior'.

'I want to have a baby.'
Besides suicide, the ultimate among all selfish acts made by humankind has got to be procreation.

B. McGILLICUDDY