9 February

Today's Proust. "What a profound significance small things assume when the woman we love conceals them from us." Proust understood love in remarkable ways. He saw that the idea that two people could be as one was tragically deluded. That any two people occupy completely different universes, and happiness in love was understanding this, that the other is an endless well of difference to ourselves, rather than some sort of sameness. Jealousy and relationship breakdown is as the quote says, the continuous rediscovery of this basic fact. When the smallest action by one you love reveals these other universes, often suddenly and unexpectedly. Looking into the eyes of the one you love is (or should be) like looking into an endless mystery. Proust also saw that when people don't get this, they repeat the same loves, over and over, with different partners, looking for 'the one' without recognising that each one is multiple.