You think love is some transcendent force. A cosmic accident of timing, vulnerability, chemistry. I used to think that too, once. Or at least I think I did. But love, when you strip it down, is pattern recognition. The brain identifying someone else's presence as beneficial to survival. Dopamine. Oxytocin. A neatly packaged system of biological manipulation. I knew that. I know that. St » Continue Reading
You think you understand people—how they tick, what they want. You’ve been trained to believe that empathy is the key to knowing them. But it's not. Empathy is a tool, just like any other. A means to an end. The real key is detachment, the ability to observe without feeling. You see, emotions? They cloud judgment. They make you weak. Your need to be understood, your desperate clinging to moralit » Continue Reading
There’s a moment when you realize the line between right and wrong isn’t a line at all. It’s a shadow—soft, shifting, and impossible to pin down. We grow up clinging to rules because they give us structure, because they tell us how to behave when the world feels too vast and unpredictable. But then, you step into a position of power, or responsibility, or simply adulthood, and you learn that the r... » Continue Reading