The Age Of Reason

Some two or three hundred years ago there became a trend to put emotions and faith on the back burner and let reason rule whenever decision making had to be made. In his youth he thought this was a dumb way to go about living one's life. He was of Mediterranean descent and the hot blood of emotions flowed through his veins. He felt the important decisions in his life couldn't be made through reason but by the way he felt. You have to understand what you may consider important weren't necessarily important to him and vice  versa. A simple argument about the taste of wine might end up in fisticuffs, whereas arguments about the validity of a supreme being was good for discussion but nothing to become excited about.

When he fell in love he fell MADLY in love. The problem was there were many madly excursions into the world of passion and lust until he finally met a young girl who insisted he think about what his actions might cause before he committed them. He fought her valiantly until he had to marry her or she would have left him. Becoming a man with responsibilities caused him to become less emotional and more of a man of reason. This evolution helped in in many ways. He had less bruises. He became successful in the business world. Whereas before he reached this age of reason he was considered somewhat unstable, exciting and interesting now he was very stable, dull and somewhat of a bore. The main thing was they were happy in connubial bliss with their offspring.

The years flew by and the children grew and flew the coop. His beloved also left him, far too soon as she went home to her creator. He was left alone. As he aged he often wondered what became of that young man who flew by the seat of his pants with emotions bleeding from every pore of his body over things which were important to him and maybe only him. Now he was considered an elder statesman in the community and in his family. As long as he followed his reason he was fine but his life had no electricity, no spark in it. Then he met someone who was years younger than he. They seemed to hit off as soon as they touched. His reason, however, told him this was a foolish proposition to consider. He figured soon he would be very old and probably die. Yet the young man within him was trying to bust out of the captivity he had been in for lo these many years. The young man within him was yelling for him to stop thinking and start feeling and throw caution to the winds, to live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself.

Then one night as he was going to meet the object of his affection he decided that this is the night he was going to throw caution to the wind, profess his love and even if rejected he would be able to feel the emotions of love unrequited. They met and he started to say what was in his heart but was stopped by his inner self using reason telling him he would be a fool and forget about it. And so he crawled back into his shell of reason to the great disappointment of that young man within himself. But he said to himself, maybe I'll try another day.