The Love Experiment

The Love Experiment

     Can love, make more love? A rule says that matter is conserved, nothing is made or destroyed. But love is something quizzical. Love does not have mass or volume. I wonder if love can defy the laws of matter and grow from a tiny seed to a burgeoning mushroom?

If I pick up these cigarette butts – they are yucky and I don’t want to touch them – but if I do pick them up and continue to pick them up everyday from this sidewalk will someone else notice and feel different when they walk by? Its hard to measure something like that though.

     They say you should clean up graffiti real fast so that other people don’t add to it. Maybe it can work the opposite way too? I want to try. If I pick up little pieces of plastic that fall on this sidewalk maybe someone else will notice and perhaps be less uncareful with a cheese stick wrapper?

A dilapidated house, where to begin? So much falling apart. It has seemed better to let the front go to waste and nestle into the back where I can manage a tiny garden for myself. But this love experiment extends to other places I normally turn my head to. A baby silvery lavender no bigger than my head; I broke open the clay next to this littered sidewalk and turned up the dirt. There was not an earthworm in the seven inches I managed to break through. But my handy hoe managed to break apart softball-sized dirt clods into change sized particles. What will happen if I stick this soft, new seedling in this broken up dirt against this uneven sidewalk? Of course, I can’t just leave it there.  I will sprinkle it with water each morning or afternoon. Will someone else notice this little baby and appreciate its hopefulness? Maybe it won’t spark a conscious thought, but maybe someone will unconsciously step a bit slower when passing by. Love, without mass or volume is difficult to measure. So, it will be hard to tell. Still something in me feels lighter when I see it. Kind of like a pendulum without air resistance.

     Love does take energy which is curious because energy, like matter, is conserved. It makes you think love might be conserved, also. But there are unexplained events which show love can spread from tiny acts of kindness. I want to test my hypothesis for burgeoning love, it might be hard to conclusively identify a linear trend. However, it will feel good trying. So, I will go to work dusting off steps, washing faces, cutting cucumbers, and hanging up wet towels. I will sprinkle this lavender once a day and remove any cigarette butts I see. It’s my love experiment.

     

Taking time to sift through the new salt in my partner’s spiky fine head and kissing his face. Accepting the changes time has brought and shifting to keep moving. Flowing from utmost freedom as twenty-year olds to dutiful parents keeping kids close and engaged. For love, we keep the necessary routines in place. With hope, we love, and hope it spreads with these two wrestling cubs. Love passes between us and through them. It’s a love experiment.