Midnight Musings

Is there a science behind the concept of “love?”

What is love, really, but some chemical reaction caused by the sight, feel, thought of one another? What are those senses but mere firings of neurons, an electric current pulsing around a network of human veins, arteries, capillaries, causing the release of extra compounds that in turn, twist and contort our organs and inevitably get misinterpreted as “butterflies”?

What causes someone to feel that, so to speak, chemistry? What if we are all walking science experiments, just waiting for that one right match that will cause some sort of explosion? (Or do you settle for the one that just causes bubbles, smoke, steam, rainbows, sediment?)

I have a theory that we only meet that exact right chemical match in one person. Perhaps several could do the trick, with several catalysts, but there is only that ONE that makes you come undone at the hinges. What if, for some reason, they’re immune to all of the atomic work at hand? What if you are the only one who is affected by the catastrophic reaction? What if the match isn’t really a match, but you as an individual alone in your equation?

Does that mean you’re alone forever? That everyone else you meet that seems to click with you just doesn’t quite do the trick for you, in any sense?

What if you like someone to the point of friendship and fondness, but it doesn’t exceed that? You can miss them. You can kiss them, run your fingers through their hair, laugh with them, talk with them, make love with them. But is that love? Can you define that as love? Or are all of us, the ones that have settled for that smoke and mirrors, just fooling ourselves?