17 May

Boo hoo? I think betrayal is the heart of not just social life, but of all of reality. In love, we hear what we want to hear and project what we want to see, onto the people we love. Friendship the same. A new road through a town is great for the town, but at the same time betrays it by making it easier for passing traffic to drive by. Steel reinforcing in a concrete building makes the concrete flexible but then corrodes and destroys it. After enough days of having delightful guests, everybody can’t wait to go back to their own homes. Etc. etc. etc. Betrayal is the root of everything because difference is the root of everything. I don’t think it’s cynical or bad news to recognise it, what I think it means is that we always have to create things anew, every day. We have to make our love real in practical ways, every day, maintain our roads and buildings, keep ourselves interesting and useful to our friends. Betrayal is a lazy assumption, that things should just keep going how they currently are, without work.