Doves and Wolves

The most interesting contrast I have ever come across in the natural world is the nature of Doves and Wolves. A Dove is a shy, graceful, and often intimidated creature. It is known as the meekest of all creatures. Whereas a Wolf - for its ferocity is an intense and violent creature with an aura of eeriness. It is known as the fiercest of all creatures.

One may wonder whether there are any similarities between them. And there is one similarity that stands out and it is a paradox. Consider the Dove as a finite horizontal line and the Wolf as a finite vertical line (finite because they are not infinite beings) . When you take these two lines together, there is a point of intersection- a paradox. You can now clearly imagine a figure made by these two lines and the paradox- a Cross.

This paradox is the most profound and admirable character of the natures of Doves and Wolves. And this paradox is known as Constancy. Doves and Wolves are two creatures that remain together with their partners for life. In the sense that a pair of Doves and a pair of Wolves can never be separated but by death alone. They never look for another partner till one is dead. It is a relationship which is commonly known as "Till death do us part." This nature of constancy is a paradox as it is observed in these two very contrasting creatures.


Now the question arises: Doesn't humanity show this nature of constancy too? It is difficult to give an answer. Because majority does not make totality. It will be like saying that everyone on earth has O +ve blood group because majority of the people has O +ve blood group. And also if I wear a blue glass and see everything blue it does not mean that the whole world becomes blue.

These days, although not everywhere and not everyone, getting a partner is more or less like getting a new pair of shoes. Once you feel that you are no longer in love with your shoes or your shoes are no longer in love with you or you find a better pair of shoes, you get the new pair of shoes.

But I feel there is a much more important question: Should we have this nature of constancy and how can we be like Doves and Wolves, not literally, which would mean laying eggs like doves and howling at night like wolves, but in the sense of the paradox?

I cannot be more sure to affirm that this nature of constancy is and had been a part of humanity; it must ha surely belonged to him once but which had been gradually corrupted with time and by man's own complacent nature, it is now almost lost. So the answer to the first part is "Yes" because it is our very own nature. Whereas to answer the second part is tough. All I can think I can do is to try and scrap out the rust from the old rusted iron. So here it goes.

To show constancy I think the primary requisite is to fall in love. Falling in love is a glorious thing but like all other feelings experienced by a man, this feeling too fades away and sometimes very quickly. So then should someone try to be in love all the time to be like Doves and Wolves? It is impossible to be in the state of "being in love" all the time. It is unimaginable to be in that state and lose sleep, lose appetite and fail to do ones work for years. This Love comes through the admiration of someone for his or her kindness, looks or personality and character. Lets call this love the "glorious love." Love must be something more than the "glorious love" else it can never have the constancy nature as it is just another feeling and all feelings fade. But of course the glorious love is very important and it is a starting point of all kinds of love and without a beginning there can be no progress.


We see that whenever someone is in the state of glorious-love there is a strong intention to make a lot of promises and pledges. Listen to any love song and you will immediately see the promises made by the lover to their beloved. "Everything I do I do it for you" -Bryan Adams, "I'll be there for you"- Rembrants, "I'll stand by you forever" - Enrique Iglesias (Hero) ,etc. So what happens when the glorious love fades away? Are the promises meant to be kept forever or only when one is in love, when one is in the glorious love?

Sometimes I wonder, to whom are they- the love song writers and singers, making these promises to. It must be definitely someone perfect, flawless, glorious and totally an imaginary being. For they seem to be simply making promises to their 'imaginary beloved' just to break it. And they can break it because it was merely an imagination.


Regarding the vows: When any normal person falls in love, the idea of marriage will surely be in his or her mind. If not then that person has not fallen in love but fallen in lust. Marriage is a vow, a promise one makes with his or her beloved, a vow of constancy. It is what is famously known as "when two becomes one", not in the literal sense but in the sense that the gun and the bullet makes one weapon or the violin and the bow makes one musical instrument. And this vow ought not to be broken under any circumstances of the feelings.


Many think that this glorious love is supposed to be forever and once they see that its fading they think they made a wrong choice and starts looking for a new beginning. Not realizing that the new glorious love that they might find will also eventually die.

So what could be the other kind of love? It must be a kind of love that wills to keep the vows made by the glorious love. A love that is kind and patient, a love that is caring and not proud, a love that is not rude and self-less, a love that protects, trusts and persevere to hold on to the vows and promises made. Lets call it the "wholesome love." This wholesome love is the True love. A person who thinks glorious love is true love is like a person who takes only the salad in a banquet and think the banquet to be just a salad banquet.

A wholesome love can also be the starting point but in this present world almost all the loves start with the glorious love.

Like a seed that must die or lose its normal shape and form to sprout into a new plant, the glorious love must die and will die but it must sprout into the wholesome love. Without the wholesome love, the glorious love remains partial and the nature of constancy remain unfulfillable. This wholesome love is what binds the couple together when the glorious love dims off, it is what prevents them from seeking a new glorious love in times of emotional drought, it is what keeps the promises from breaking, it is that ideal that will help us to regain our true nature of constancy and it is what that can make us to be like Doves and Wolves, it is what that can make us "us" again.


Now finally, one may think how can this person write about anything which he does not know at all. It will be an irony if the writer has never fallen in love, it will be more ironical if he is unmarried, and most ironical if he has committed his life to celibacy. But this is not his own idea but its merely an extract from the only "One" philosophy- the Christian Philosophy.