What Bizarre Whim Haunts The Soul Of This Dying Man?
The decision to accept yourself as a discreet confidant of people is a form of seeing how they react, knowing their limits and finding out how far they can go without shaking their convictions.
- Here, then, is what led me to consult you, continued Samuel. Well, Julius thinks he’s going to die soon, and I’m afraid he’s right—and he’d like before he dies, at least to have the joy of calling you his wife.
- His wife? murmured Frederique.
- Yes. do you realize what bizarre whim haunts the soul of this dying man? I know very well that she asks absolutely nothing else from you than to continue the filial affection that you give her even now. I know well that he will respect you as his daughter. But I, who love you, I who had and expressed to Julius this desire which means my life, cannot easily endure that another, even a dying friend, should offer his name before me to her who promised to wear mine.
- I made you a promise, yes, Frédérique said softly, and I assure you that I will keep it. I am yours, and you did not need to consult me about the answer to Herr von Eberbach. I categorically refuse any proposal from you.
Are you able to change something in the way you position yourself and act in the context of assuming a duality (reconciled with yourself), so that what fulfills you does not violate the rights and beliefs of others?
- Yes, you are an angel, said Samuel; but have I the right to abuse your generosity, and can I respond to your devotion with my selfishness? Is it necessary that, in exchange for my happiness, two beings should suffer? Especially when these two beings are the man I love as a brother, and the woman I love more than a sister? Shouldn’t I give up, avoiding the risk of being considered a scoundrel, a happiness that would bring him death and you poverty?
He stopped for a moment, as if trying to gather the strength necessary for a sacrifice, and resumed:
- My friend is dying. He lives only for this supreme hope. To destroy it means to destroy existence. A true crime. Banish that thought? With helplessness. She clings to marriage with that stubbornness that is only characteristic of children and the dying. My friendship clashes terribly with my love. I feel it is almost a criminal act to deny a poor dying soul the happiness that harms no one in this world, but would help him to go with a smile to the next world.
Can you find another way to communicate a reality, by belonging to the same reality expressed differently?
Our thoughts and material needs, if they intertwine in revealing the forms of manifestation of the “happiness” phenomenon, as evidenced by the relationship between the two characters in Dumas’ novel, can lead to a change in attitude about life. And not only that. The idea and the phenomenon of change appear in people’s lives both in the way of honestly confessing the oppressive steps of the heart, and in the way of approaching a reality that, even if it hurts, even if it comes from an exasperation of sensitivity, even if it seeks adventure in all its poses, creates a personality full of firmness and maturity.
Here comes the phenomenon of duality, the conflict between real and latent, an example of opposition or contrast between two aspects of something, a veil that lifts from your eyes and you understand the world exactly as it is. I mean that when he reveals his thoughts, the man is really himself, while in everyday life with him he is only a mask that boasts a superb composition and a special effect.
Or as someone wrote on a web page, “in a couple’s relationship, the duality goes to the point where the life partner constantly feels that he does not know who he has by his side, which sometimes is not such a bad thing, because you can never be bored, and there is always a new challenge before you. In principle, the opposing forces are constantly aspiring to a reconciliation that will take them out of their separation and raise them again to the unity from which they descended.”
Leadership mirrors the image in the mind of the man in control of his instincts, who cannot be humbled when he reveals his thoughts, intentions and feelings. That makes him unique and determinable (especially in rules, behaviors and values), makes him the possessor of a reality that has its own and particular dimension.
What Bizarre Whim Haunts The Soul Of This Dying Man? I believe that the desire to be loved, without having to qualify for acceptance, is a whim that you will not be able to make the most of later as you would like, a whim that you can always dispense with if you notice that something doesn’t suit you.
The writer Gerard Lele well emphasized: “Dependence is that imperious need to be loved without any moment of weakness or absence, love without which the individual gets sick, weakens, ceases to live, ceases to exist. The addict has a greater need to be loved than to give love, and his need is insatiable; he is like a bottomless sack that ceaselessly demands to be filled. Everything happens as if he does not love himself and asks the other to love him in his place. His demands risk exhausting his partner.”
* Note: Dumas, Alexandre - The Hand of Providence, Editura Vestala, 1993, Bucureşti.
