The crazy thing called love

WELLNEWS

Victor Romulo Gallardo Dumaguing

The good Lord has blessed humanity with the gift of perfect vision and yet some enamored souls justify the choice of their affection that “love is blind”. And there is Cupid who seems to have more than his share of stupidity when aiming his arrow, and could there be a Valentine more serious and meaningful than just being “funny”?
    No word in the English dictionary evokes as much emotional response as the word LOVE. with the Bible acknowledging its supremacy. Corinthians 13:13 states, “and now abide faith, hope love, these three but the greatest of these is love”.
    What is this thing called love? Love is the melody that breathes passion into a song or the rhyme that spells magic into a poem. The writer Cummings declares, “Unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense.” A song further teases, “You’re nobody till someone loves you.” Ouch! Admittedly, love is not one of the basic needs of humans. However at some point in our lives, love reigns over food, clothing and shelter, when the heart overrides the hypothalamus, the real seat of emotions.
    Diamond has many facets, love too has many faces. To a love-struck teenager, love is the only thing that keeps his mind off his concern over his baby fat and pesky pimples. With Adrenalin plus the added boost of their estrogen and testosterone, love sends thunderbolts and jabs of lightning up their spines, with thudding heartbeats.
    To married couples who have survived the so-called 7-year itch, love is the surprise phone call or text in the middle of a real busy day saying, “I just called to say I love you.” To the old and grey, love is the comfort of one’s company as they watch a breathtaking sunset, as the sun gently endorses its light to a full moon. Doctors and nurses on night duty, witness the deepest meaning of love, when an elderly stooped woman, refuses to sleep to make sure the dextrose of her irritable husband is dripping well. Above all these form of love is the purest form- the unconditional love of God for His creations. As sublime is the love of parents, Come what may, parents are ready to forgive, to support, and continue to nurture a wayward son or daughter.
    Reality bites, love is not always a bed of roses. It could also be a crown of rose thorns. While it promises bliss, love could instead deliver blisters. Einstein with his genius E-mc2 probably cannot fathom love’s ironies and paradoxes. Like, love hurts. A song goes, “you always hurt the one you love, the one you shouldn’t hurt at all.” As a counterpoint, “love means never having to say” I’m sorry’” What do all these conflicting statements lead to? Madness? Well, Don Quixote, so enamored with his Dulcinea screams, “too much sanity is madness.” And mind you, some people tell their amore, “if loving you is wrong, then I would not want to be right.”
    The Brownings swore to each other, “how do I love thee, let me count the ways.” But can we quantify love? Does love assume material dimension like solid, liquid or gas, thus making love measurable in absolute units? Others would come to the rescue, “the true measure of love is to love without measure.” Wisdom dictates that for love to thrive, lovers should not do a strict accounting of, after a litle misunderstanding, who was first to reconcile   or who reminded the date of their anniversary.
    After all, love for all its intents and purposes, is never equal in terms of its manifestations. Expressions of affection differ from one person to another. Some are showy, straightforward and even downright scandalous- at least to the uninitiated- like hugging a loved one in public.
    On the other extreme, some would simply drop hints hoping to hear the words “I love you”. If you are one of those, bewitched, bothered and bewildered if you are truly loved, here’s some consoling thought, “The deepest emotions are best expressed in silence.” Which one are you, the giving or the receiving end of affection?
Does love have a color? Roses are red, violets are blue. When the bubble burst, the jilted lover has all the blues.     Love could be bright canary yellow- when jealousy rears its ugly head. Or green as when the husband starts feeling insecure and envious of the financial inroads his wife has made into her professional career. Love is pristine white when you elevate your beloved to a pedestal as epitome of everything that is good, beautiful and right. However, when doubt turns into suspicion and later on these pent-up emotions lead to violent confrontations, the whiteness becomes mottled with specks and blotches with varying shades of gray and eventually pitch-black priests, pastors, rabbi, imams always encourage couples to put God in the center of their union- the silent guest in their house, a gentle referee when the loving couple assumes extreme positions on matters like finances, problem with in laws, truant children or even issues of infidelity.
    Truly love has its ups and downs. Many days, the sun is up, oftentimes it rains. Lest you forget that, it takes the sun and the rain to make a rainbow..
    An old song says, “Love is a many splendored thing” Indeed, then and now, Love still makes sense. February is too short for a Love month, why can’t we have 365 Happy Valentine days?
  

Tips towards an ideal weight  

Victor Dumagujing MD

Dear readers and friends, especially the ladies, it’s the Love month of February how are you now, especially those who made a long list of New Year's resolution, particularly in regards to exercising, dieting  in order to achieve an ideal weight for optimum health or on a more personal note, attractive and sexy for that date with a loved one? Sincerely, your columnist hopes you are happy if indeed you are slowly but surely achieving your goal. On the other extreme, we offer our prayers that hopefully in the coming New Years, the Holy  Spirit will bless you with a steely discipline to be able to  realize your dreams and fulfill your promises.
    Meanwhile, for the backsliders- including this columnist- here are some tips culled from well-meaning friends and colleagues on how some and more folks- why not- may just find them useful in decreasing their weights or avoirdupois.
    All experts- doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, - will tell that a hearty filling breakfast is the first step towards achieving your goal. The word "breakfast" was not coined for nothing. After long hours of sleep, it is but logical and normal to "break the fast" and load yourself with something to provide you the energy for the rest of the day. Being busy is no excuse for missing the most important meal of the day. Never mind if you are not a believer of the jaded saying, ' for breakfast, eat like a king, for lunch eat like a prince and for dinner, eat like a pauper." Just do it! Otherwise, you end up really hungry at midmorning and guess what? Most likely the food - if you call it food- that you will put in your mouth are the stuff dripping with lots of fats and carbohydrates with nary a content of desirable nutrients like proteins and vitamins.
    Why don’t you drink a glass of water before meals? For this suggestion, we got various reactions like water makes them fat. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Water, like vitamins and minerals do not contain calories, thus how could it be fattening? Besides, our teacher in chemistry have always told us that fat is anhydrous- meaning as Sharon sang, tubig at langis, kailan man, hindi magka wangis". The glass of water drunk before meals would somehow temporarily distend the stomach, giving the eater a sense of fullness, so that he/she will not go eat on abandon to the verge of gluttony.. So, unless there are absolute contraindications- like terminal kidney failure, congestive heart failure- drink that glass of water before you sit down for meals, water cleanses, refreshes and gives the skin a dewy glow.
    Remove all condiments from the dining table- which we are sure will get a rousing loud violent reaction After all, Asia been the center of Spice trade , so much so that  Caucasians and Westerners find our food much tastier and yummy, compared to their rather bland dishes. From the point of view, most condiments have hidden salt in them, which is potentially harmful to folks with hypertension. Besides, salt with its sodium content attracts a molecule of water, which contribute to a heavier reading when you step into a weighing scale.. . By the way, psychologists warns, that so-called weight watchers should NOT monitor their weights daily,( just like anxiously frequently opening  a kettle waiting for the water to boil)  because they will only get disappointed. The normal healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week thus , if one is too excited to see a dramatic weight loss, will end up very sad, and in the depression, resort to binge eating, some sort of revenge-eating.
    It also makes sense to remove the TV from the dining room. And for that matter, the father or the head of the family should not allow their children to bring their plates to the living room to watch their favorite cartoons, nor any member of the family watch their telenovelas.. Remember, overweight children become obese adults.as afar
A few desperate souls have gone as far as painting their dining room walls with blues and greens, away from the earth colors like reds, browns, orange, yellows which some experts claim, whet the appetite. Others have gone to the extremes of installing a floor to ceiling mirror so that the sight of a bulging tummy, or a double chin might just prevent them from getting a second helping of the foodies and goodies. A family has donated their big plates to charity, replacing them with much smaller plates.
    A medical classmate of mine swore for the next few months, never to look at mirrors, she hid her weighing scale and promised not to look at her pictures of yesteryears.  How about you, dear readers, any bright idea?
Next Week: What Makes Women Fat?