To leap right into the fray, I do not believe in love at first sight. This may come as a surprise to you, considering how avidly I believe in the virtues of love, but I stand by my original statement. Anyone who believes that they have fallen in love with someone after simply seeing them for the first time is deluding themselves, to begin with. Furthermore, basing any sort of relationship on such "love" is foolhardy and doomed to failure. Allow me explain.

When one sees a person, does he or she say, "Boy, would you look at the values on that girl," or "Gee, that guy has great morals; and what a personality!"? No, of course not. More likely, what was said is something akin to "Dude, check out the rack on that chick!" or "Ooh, that guy is one juicy piece of meat." Seem superficial? It should. As a species, humans are extremely superficial, whether we would like to think of ourselves as such or not. The fact of the matter is, any initial attraction we have toward someone is based on nothing more than pure, unadulterated lust, and people who think otherwise are fooling themselves. Sounds horrible, doesn't it? Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at things) for us, it's not our fault; it's merely human nature.

It is, indeed, because of the great respect I have for love that I feel this way. Love is not something transient enough to be given to a random person one has never met, never truly known. True love is sacred and beautiful, not to be thrown around as if it were nothing more than affection, meretricious and meaningless. One should recognise that what we think of as "love at first sight" is nothing more than lust disguised by our own pride and self-aggrandised sense of nobility: we do not wish to be thought of as superficial and lascivious, naturally, so we claim to be feeling something that is generally regarded as more profound, in this case love.

Is what I feel for Aurore love? (If you're just joining us now, see prior entries for details on Aurore.) Perhaps. It's certainly more than lust. In fact, although I am physically attracted to her, that is not, by any means, the basis for my general attraction. What I love about her are the more important things: her personality, a bit quirky but pure gold; her brilliant mind (I'm a sucker for intellectual girls); her sense of humour, so in line with my own; and, perhaps most of all, the simple vivacity that she possesses. I am, by most accounts, a dynamic, intense person, and she makes me seem funereal by comparison. Every word she speaks, and every move she makes, is so filled with life that it is almost overwhelming just to be in her presence.

More than that, however, I know that I care for her dearly, despite the relatively short time we spent with each other. I shall defend her again any attack, stand with her against otherwise insurmountable odds; I shall triumph in her successes, lament her defeats, and simply revel in her very presence, in that radiance she exudes. Yes, I definitely care for Aurore; whether what I feel is love or not, it is too soon to tell, but I do know that I care for her.

In other news, I am currently reading Sir Thomas More's Utopia, and it is truly fascinating. The country that gives the novel its name is presented as the ideal by which all other nations should be measured; More's invention is thus incredible, but also impossible. If all people were as open-minded and noble as Utopians, perhaps it could be done. But alas! we humans are driven by greed, avarice, and self-preservation alone, and those form the foundation for all our actions. We would like to think of ourselves as being more magnanimous than that, but, in truth, we simply aren't.

Until next we meet, I bid you farewell. Au revoir, tout le monde!

[Exit Orpheum.]