Can we love that too?

I remember sitting in my yoga class a light years back when our teacher Mrs. Philip invited us to close our eyes and entertain a romantic fantasy. She asked us to draw a picture in our minds of the perfect guy/ gal/ man or a woman, a person with whom we were in love, or had a crush on, or for whom we simply had a strong infatuation or for whom we are crazy. We were to sketch in our minds every last detail like their hair, their eyes, their lips, their shape, their eyebrows, their dimples, everything about them we found beautiful/ gorgeous/ pretty or attractive. She asked us to focus on how astonishing they were and to celebrate our love or emotion for them.

Done...

I imagined a girl in my mind and felt a sweltering/ searing/ sizzling pulse of warm affection, as I assume, was intended.

Then she said, ‘Now imagine the object of your affection...naked…. Without clothes.’

Ohh!!! Done…

The temperature in the room must have risen several Fahrenheit’s among the students. It couldn't get any better than this.

Finally, she said, ‘Now, I want you to picture this love of your life, in your mind's eye, naked and beautiful......on the toilet. I want you to picture them picking their nose and wiping the snot in an unseemly place. I want you to see them mining for earwax and looking at its texture. I want you to picture them urinating, listening to the pee as it tinkles, I want you to smell them passing gas in the most pungent/ strong sense, I want you to listen to them grunt, defecating in the loudest manner possible, dropping feces into the water below...’

I can't assure about anyone else in the room...but my perfect fantasy just turned to nightmare…I swear literally into a nightmare.

Then, pausing for effect, she concluded her experiment by saying, ‘Now, if you can still tell me you love them...then I believe you.’

Her point was well-taken. When we consider love, beauty, what is attractive in a person, it usually begins on the surface, how they look, whether clothed or even naked. Then, as we mature, we realize that the object of our love, our fantasy must go beyond the superficial to what's inside, their intelligence, personality, their emotional maturity and spirituality. But are these the only things that lie inside a person? Should these ghostly / insubstantial / ethereal qualities be the only reason for our love and intimacy? As my teacher helped us ponder: what about the physical-internal, both the pleasant and the not so pleasant? Can we love that too?

Thanks Mrs. Philip….
-K Himaanshu Meehirs’ Shukla…