Love's Weight

A Parable

The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.

—Haruki Murakami

Above: Emotions are both the most universal and least understood educators.

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To know me is to understand that puns, portmanteaus, and wordplay are all part of my verbal repertoire.

I'm a sucker for a clever quip, a well-timed retort, or a consternating crossword. This probably explains my hopeless addiction to Wordle.

A workout with words—where verbs are my dumbbells and Microsoft Word is my gym—is my favorite intellectual exercise.

To wit:

All this to say, I cannot resist a writing challenge.

When I stumbled upon Creative Thought Partner’s 49-Word Story Challenge, I simply had to contribute. In Harrison's words:

It’s a fact that creativity emerges from constraints. When we're given complete freedom, we struggle. But when we're bound by specific parameters—like crafting a story in exactly 49 words—our creativity finds a way to flourish.

To this, I would only add Sidney Sheldon’s cutting insight: “A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.”

Though what follows is fictional, I believe it offers metaphorical lessons on life and love.

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Nobody told the boy that love could kill.

That an outstretched heart could be dangerous.

That if you held things too closely, they could suffocate.

That love has gravity.

That the beloved could be done in by the lover.

His teacher was a tiny bird, still in trembling hands.

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Read the twelve other submissions here.

Many thanks to Harrison for the prompt and the feature.

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Per my about page, White Noise is a work of experimentation. I view it as a sort of thinking aloud, a stress testing of my nascent ideas. Through it, I hope to sharpen my opinions against the whetstone of other people’s feedback, commentary, and input.

If you want to discuss any of the ideas or musings mentioned above or have any books, papers, or links that you think would be interesting to share on a future edition of White Noise, please reach out to me by replying to this email or following me on Twitter X.

With sincere gratitude,

Tom