the lost man chronicles
book two: the art of love


devotion

Devotion, the act of devoting. Devote, a word derived from the old French word vovere, which means to vow, to commit a solemn act. Solemn, marked by ceremony, or an invocation of religious sanction. Vow, a binding promise to act, serve or observe a condition. Thus, devotion is synonymous with fidelity.

Reality: as devotion is but a condition that inevitably leads to contrition, shouldn't we do away with this weak principle of commitment?

Akin to its religious roots, if faith leads to contrived rites and the object of devotion is but a fantastic appeal to keep ideals alive which no human can wholly achieve, do we not but continue to deceive ourselves? For politicians are only devoted to their constituents as long as they vote for them; priests are devoted to gain access to the fodder of folly which makes them all too human; lovers are devoted as long as the weight of routine, boredom, ego and age do not press too heavily upon the tenuous binds of romance.

Romance: something (as an extravagant story or account) that lacks basis in fact.

Devotion to anything, more so anyone, is an ideal riddled with loopholes, excuses, compromise, double-standards, states of purity that are rarely realized over a lifetime. Just like the absolutes of fairy tales, myth and religion, ideals of human hope: devotion, integrity, honesty, and humility are all but stories fashioned to abet human nature and the probability toward resignation, toward the designation and design of social mechanisms constructed so that we don't have to think too much or make an earnest effort with every unique situation.

For just like the false promise of salvation, striving toward these principles is the easy way out (of making life meaningful), a facile means of seeing the world by rules and laws that we do not have to make up every time we interact.




the art of living the art of living the beginning the art of love the art of love


legal l.m