In my common thinking, Eros is not in any way limited in its scope by the implications of the idea of sexuality. In fact, I largely reject that idea, because, it seems to me… as is my regular experience… that the common ideas of sexuality are estranged from their origins. Origins from which we ourselves arise, yet not »merely sexually. I mistrust the concepts that have become the modern frames we adopt unconsciously. I mistrust the language, intrinsically, but not explicitly.

In these imaginings, Eros points at a fundamental mystery that is universally exemplified. Perhaps I indicate, in part, the uniquely personal »and communally transmitted senses that arouse us to motivation.

Einstein had an eros for specific mysteries of nature. My interest in a book reflects something more than pragmatic concerns; and even ‘pragmatic’ concerns acquire my attention via ‘across the gap’ relationships in which I am transformed by… something not so easily done away with as the word ‘desire’ implies.

So there is, for me, a perspective on Eros that places it as absolutely foundational to being human, to motivation, wonder, creativity, reverence, terror, love, learning, play… would I here make words if there was no potential to »go beyond them together? And what underlies our willingness to listen, read, walk, see, know… and touch?

What is it that actually motivates our feelings of outrage, injustice… or hatred? If I look from this angle, Eros stands out as ‘the gravity that draws or propels us’. It’s not the only sense of the word I often entertain, but if someone asks me ‘What is Eros’?, after I explain that we use words to mean things, rather than the other way around, I might ask them what urge within them gave rise to that question?

Then, perhaps, we’d smile together.