A Terrifying Contradiction

"The greatest pain a person can endure is not hunger, poverty, or even death, but to love in a world that does not acknowledge their love—to give their heart completely and receive only emptiness and silence in return." Fyodor Dostoevsky

Within us, we carry a terrifying contradiction: we seek love, yet we fear it; we long for closeness, yet we flee from it; we adore the other, yet we doubt them. What absurdity is this, that makes us cling to those who leave and neglect those who stay?

I wonder: Is love a test of our strength or a revelation of our weakness? And is the loneliness we escape from nothing more than the natural consequence of every love that was never reciprocated?

♾️