9) An Ideal Society 8) Heartbreak
Pollution was defeated. Corruption just retreated.
Poverty and racism were dead.
Guns were melted down and made into a clown.
No one ever had a thing to dread.
The clown performed upon the needless Pentagon.
A reminder to the masses who were dancing on the lawn.
Their agenda was a joke, spending billions for a bomb.
Developing a strategy to sing that sad war song.
Now we’ve come together, our voices loud and clear.
It resonates to all: there is nothing left to fear.
A symphony of sound founded an ideal society.
Malcolm Mohil
"An Ideal Society"
"You know, love is weird," Malcolm continued. "We’re all filled with this beautiful feeling, expressing it in different ways, but always wanting to share it with other people.
"When you have no one to express it to, you feel lonely. When you have someone to express it to, after a while, you take that person for granted.
"Often times relationships stagnate because one person gets bored and restless with the other person. Instead of focusing love on that person, the restless one tends to stray to find another way to express love. I can't think of how many people I've known who've been in a relationship where one person in the couple cheated on the other. All because they didn't know how to keep their relationship vibrant and alive."
"Do you know how to do that, Malcolm?" Becky asked.
"I think so. In my opinion, an ideal relationship is one where two people are mutually giving and receiving. The energy exchange is in balance. For the relationship to last, the two must continually share their thoughts and be willing to compromise if something becomes an issue. It's easier if the two are willing to grow together.
"If two people inspire each other to develop their potential, there would be no desire to end the relationship. Boredom wouldn't be an issue because the two would constantly be encouraging the other to discover themselves. This would maintain the passion to be with one another forever in and endless state of a contented ‘now’.
"When two people commit their lives to each other, they must trust the other’s intentions. When they trust each other, they grant each other the freedom to express themselves. Jealousy and possessiveness wouldn't be an issue. The two know by allowing each other to express themselves, they're learning more about themselves which can then be shared with the relationship, allowing both to grow together," Malcolm concluded.
"You should be a marriage counselor. Sounds like you've given this a lot of thought," Becky said. "I thought you didn't believe in everlasting love?"
"Deep down I do. I just have never had it happen to me. I would love to find someone to have this ideal relationship with. It makes sense to me."
"Yeah. I like your explanation. I don't know very many couples who exhibit it, though. It's funny how most people don't know how to make a relationship work. We all want one, yet when it comes down to it, most people stay in a relationship for security rather than passion, especially older, married couples. It's rare to see a passionate, older couple who isn’t at least a little jaded or cynical. "
"Some people strive to understand love and make it work. There are so many books, seminars and counselors out there, but I always found it strange we weren't taught about love in school. We have sex education, but not love education. Rather ironic, isn't it?"
"That is funny. Maybe that’s because nobody really knows how to love. Love is rather subjective. Maybe we're supposed to learn by experiencing it, rather than being taught it."
"Yeah. And in the process have our hearts broken over and over," Malcolm quipped.
"There's nothing like pain to shorten the learning curve!"
"And to make you understand how heartbreak can affect a person. Did you ever notice after your heart was broken, 99% of all the songs on the radio suddenly made sense? You finally knew what the song was about. You feel kinship with the singer. You develop compassion for other people who've had their heart broken. I guess that's why pop music is so popular.
"Maybe we need to have our heart broken sooner or later because we weren't taught how to love. Or maybe we've been conditioned to have our hearts broken by pop music. Throughout our childhood we innocently listened to the radio, singing with these sad songs, perhaps programming our brains to break our hearts at the appropriate time."
"Hmm, I don’t think so. Broken hearts have been occurring throughout history and throughout different cultures. Mainstream America's not alone in this regard," Becky said.
"That's true. I doubt humanity's alone in this regard, too. Maybe other animals can experience heartbreak as well."
"It wouldn't surprise me. Our emotions come from our limbic system, which is a part of the brain other animals have as well. Studies have shown animals experience emotions, so it wouldn't surprise me if they could have a broken heart on top of that," Becky explained.
"You might think since humans could reason, we could reason our way out of a broken heart. But even people whose relationship seems hateful can experience heartbreak. It's like all their reasoning was usurped by pure emotion. It makes you wonder who's in control of the brain: reason or emotion."
"Emotions do seem to dominate most peoples' lives. We'll do or say things in the heat of the moment because we're angry and later we'll regret our behavior. From what I learned in a neurology class, we have three parts to our brain. The lower cerebellum’s believed to be the first brain to develop. It’s also called the reptilian brain because it’s the brain found in reptiles. This structure controls bodily functions like breathing and heart rate. It also controls primal emotions like fear: the fight or flight response."
"So the ones who fear, the ones who rule the world, are bipedal lizards?" Malcolm asked.
"Becky laughed. "That's not far from the truth."
She continued, "The limbic brain, or mid brain, developed next. All mammals have this brain. It’s believed to control dreaming and advanced emotions. It’s where external stimuli are processed. It affects the endocrine system, which affects the hormones produced in the body. It causes animals to voice communicate and play with one another. It also coordinates with the reptilian brain to fine tune physiological responses.
"The third part's the neocortex. This is the last part of the brain to develop in evolution. Mammals have a neocortex, though it varies in size depending on the species. In humans, it constitutes the largest mass of the brain. It’s what we use to reason, speak, write, plan and develop abstract thoughts with. It’s our conscious mind, our awareness and our will. It’s what decides how to express an emotion.
"Somehow all parts of the brain communicate with one another and the rest of the body. There probably is some hierarchy involved. Perhaps since the limbic system's more primal, it exhibits itself more readily. It overrides our reasoning.
"Maybe the next evolutionary development in humans or whatever the next 'higher' animal will be will have a brain with a neocortex that's more in control. That is, reasoning will dominate emotions."
"That sounds like Mr. Spock in 'Star Trek'," Malcolm calculated.
"Indeed, Malcolm. Live long and prosper, because if that’s the next step in evolution, heartbreak may be a relic from the past. Why would we want to torture ourselves with those depressing emotions when logically we can realize it's not worth it?"
"That means pop radio will become meaningless," Malcolm said.
"Pop radio will adapt. Personally, I'd rather hear songs inspiring our potentials as opposed to songs depressing our emotions. If we become more logical, we'll learn how to do that.
"Imagine a society that promotes peoples' intelligence, their creativity, their compassion and their love. We have enough reason now to assume that would be a much happier place to live. Maybe that’s the first step towards developing a more dominate reasoning capacity. Maybe by exposing ourselves to lofty ideals we'll strengthen that part in our neocortex. Thus, we’ll conquer our emotional weaknesses. Kind of like washing our brains of our limitations."
"Are you saying we wouldn't have emotions anymore?" Malcolm asked. "There are some emotions I like. Joy is a big one."
"No, we'd still have a limbic system, thus would still feel emotions. We just would have the ability to enhance the ones we like and we would have the ability to rise above the ones we chose to avoid. Like anger, jealousy, hatred, fear, resentment and all the others causing people to forget how to act civilized in our society.
"If we could find a way to suppress these feelings when they're stimulated, we'd have a much better social structure. People wouldn't fight each other. No more wars. Imagine that. Not only would we be saving lives, stopping destruction and traumatizing generations of humans, but we'd be saving a hell of a lot of money as well. Instead of 20% of our taxes going to the military, we could fund programs benefiting the planet and society."
"Like renewable energy!" Malcolm realized.
"Yes. You'd have tons of money available to make fossil and nuclear fuels obsolete."
They both began to think about the implications of this theory. It would be revolutionary to have this evolutionary brain transformation occur. They imagined all the worlds' problems vanishing because of this. By evolving the neocortex to be more dominate than the primal, emotional limbic system, humans would no longer be controlled by negative emotions. People would have less reason to fear. No more fear meant no more greed meant no more unequal distribution of wealth meant no more poverty meant no more crime meant no more police. The police would be hired to build homes for the poor who would feel inspired to create wonderful works of art and music. This would uplift everyone in a progressive feedback loop. Since positive emotions would be enhanced, people would be more celebratory and wanting to promote those feelings. That would feed people's joy and the rest of the benefits. At the end of their imagining, they saw clean air, pure water, diverse forests, productive oceans and happy people. Indeed, they created an ideal society.
Malcolm suddenly realized Becky helped him in his dilemma to save the salmon while maintaining a cheap source of power. The answer wasn't even close to what he was looking for, but it was far more meaningful and long-term. He wasn't concerned with the reality of it. The thought of the potential was enough for him. He began to cry. Weep hard. In fact, not even his most traumatic heartbreak produced wailing now overcoming him. This time though, he wept in joy.
Becky was overcome by this intense feeling as well. One tear in Malcolm's eye caused another tear in Becky's eye, which made Malcolm weep even harder. They were out of control with this emotion, but they didn't care. It felt so good to let it go. It was as if all the stress and tension of their lives were suddenly being released. Each would catch a glimpse of an emotional moment in their life, which would then be washed out of their heads by their tears. They were being cleansed of their past by this salty water. A baptism more powerful than what Becky received in church.
When the tears began to subside, they both reached out for each other, confident the embrace was welcome. They held each other silently, letting their tear soaked clothes mingle together.
Malcolm gently washed the wetness below Becky's eyes and Becky did the same to Malcolm. They both felt filled with intense love for one another. There was no longer a need for words. They had found each other now.
Malcolm moved his face closer to Becky's and placed a kiss on her forehead. She held on to his hands. He moved his lips down her face, placing a kiss on each eye, eliciting a gasp from Becky with each touch of his lips. He slowly kissed his way down her face until his lips met hers. He gave her a light kiss. And then another, this time slightly longer. He began to kiss her more passionately until both their lips were wet with one another's saliva. They began to breathe heavier and their bodies began to gyrate towards each other. Their hands were exploring each other’s body, touching softly and hardly. They were in bliss with each other.
The phone rang, temporarily startling them. This time Malcolm let it ring.