Bona Fide Image III

-“Mother, with all due respect, you have to stop meddling in my private life. I am sorry you were treated that way, but you brought this upon yourself. Please note that nothing you say about Cindy will deter me from dating her. I am in love with her, and I intend to pursue her.”

-“Phillip, Cindy is a very beautiful girl – externally. But as Plato describes it, beauty is not a thing you perceive with the eyes, as much as it is the pure essence of beauty. ‘It is not of the flesh, and it is everlasting, which never ages or fades.’

I merely hope that you will make the right choice based on your heart, not on your…primal instincts.” Clare said duly chastised.

Love can blind, by selectively focusing on the sterling qualities of the beloved, while ignoring the obvious ugliness.

Phillip and Cindy had been together almost three years, and the pressure was on him to make the romance a formal affair. Phillip intended to continue with higher education, and felt it was not the time to get engaged yet. Yet, perhaps subconsciously the thrill of the chase was gone. When one spent enough time with another, one got to see them through various prisms of light, and then those subtler tones become known.

Late one night on the way back from a soiree, Phillip suddenly stopped the car to listen with undisturbed rapture to Ravel’s Bolero, playing on the radio.

-“Hello, why are we stopping in the middle of nowhere?”A tipsy Cindy inquired.

-“I love this melody; let’s just hold hands while we listen to it.” Phillip offered.

-“There’s not even any lyrics to it!” Cindy whined.

-“Listen, just listen to it. I love this piece because it makes my heart dance. My soul rejoices as this melody triggers, deep-seated memory genes hardwired into my DNA of a time long past. From the time of my ancestors, who bravely answered to the drum beat which heralded the initiation of epic battles. Of a time long ago, where men were brave, loyal, and daring, and risked much to construct the world as we know it now.
Where life was short lived; therefore every day alive was fully appreciated, loves were passionately cherished, and each day was lived to the fullest!

In the flute and in the sensual rhythms underlying it, I can see in my mind’s eye, exotic beautiful women dancing the dance of the seven veils. With their come-hither eyes, and undulating hips, they made powerful men weak, and enslaved them to delirious passion. They danced for their lives, and fortunes.

This melody was created in the celestial spheres, and it came to Ravel upon a dream for mankind to celebrate the sheer joy of being alive!” Phillip said enraptured by the melody.

-“You're crazy, do you know that? I don’t like this crappy music, and it’s going on like forever!” Cindy said annoyingly, as she pulled her hand away from his grasp.

After several minutes, where Cindy’s intolerance of his musical choice was palpable. Phillip suggested the following: -“If you can’t stand this music Cindy, you are welcome to step outside until it’s over.”

Nothing negative that his mother or friends would have said about Cindy, shattered his tolerance for her idiosyncrasies, or disillusioned Phillip - as her repulsiveness of the sublime.





To be continued...