Written by Marc Renton
There’s a reason that glass is there
As an observer of the world I am always dumbfounded when I watch a bumblebee repetitively fly into a window. The bee either can’t recall how it entered the house, or it truly doesn’t care how he first got there. The only thing the bee knows is that there is a sunny green garden outside, and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t ram his head against the glass until he finds it. We all know what happens to the bee, he huffs and puffs until he practically gives himself a brain contusion. Then finally he lays on the windowsill, dead and ready to be collected by a weary homeowner, paper towel in hand.
We are viewing the definition of insanity, and we heckle the bee. What sort of brainless animal would try over and over to achieve something so closed off and impenetrable. Ladies and gentleman, I am here to shamefully announce my acting performance as, the bee. Heartbreak makes you do odd and strange things. A study published in Time magazine compared heartbreak to drug withdrawal. In 2010 scientists studied the brain activity of fifteen lovelorn college students. When shown pictures of their ex-lovers, brain activity was most active in areas involving motivation, craving, addiction and pain.
It’s a very interesting piece of scientific evidence we have to work with here. I am sure for many of you this provides some clarity into how lost and out of place we once felt.
When relationships end, they end for a reason, and yet our brains may surge to make us fight for something that once gave us comfort and security. We are inevitably bees, clashing the windowpane. The truth is for us to fully experience the exciting and complicated world around us, we simply cannot be the bee.
No matter how unnatural and difficult it may feel, there is a very good reason that glass is there. One day we will see right through it and judge the transparent window for exactly what it was, a barrier to something that wasn’t meant to happen. Luckily we live in a world where there are many gardens, and a cornucopia of flowers. I am thrilled to announce my return from my writing hiatus. For some undisclosed personal reasons (I am sure you have connected the dots) I could not in good faith discuss the trials and tribulations faired by Calgary’s single combatants. Should that window ever break, be sure to build in a mesh screen of your own.
