I am so much in love with a fellow human being that all my arguments against our species are thereby rendered meaningless. I am a living contradiction in terms.

Addendum I (August 4, 2016)

This haiku crosses my mind often enough, and especially when there is any sort of trouble with my beloved. As of late, we are faced with troubles galore, which is why it crosses my mind ever more often. Nonetheless, I am so much in love with her that my argument still holds. And how. For good measure, the argument also holds with respect to myself, another human being I happen to love in spite of all my arguments against my own species (“I Am a Contradiction in Terms Still,” August 23, 2013). In other words, I will remain a living contradiction in terms regardless of all the troubles with my beloved and their eventual resolution. Indeed, I am so much in love with myself to this day that I cannot even imagine ever contradicting myself in this connection.

Addendum II (August 31, 2021)

Now that troubles with my beloved are growing at a clip, and I am hardly exaggerating, I remember this haiku ever more often. Although my argument still holds, no matter how pathetically, I can easily envisage its eventual downfall. Love, what love? To my horror, I am ever closer to admitting that my beloved is a human through and through (see, e.g., “SALIGIA,” March 26, 2013). The only conundrum that still remains in my mind is my love for myself, as the first addendum spells out in so many words. Will it ever crumble? Will I ever stop contradicting myself, that is? At this stage of my life, and I am only seventy-five years of age, I am still rather optimistic. In other words, the contradiction in question remains inviolable. But my uncertainty is certainly growing as I am getting longer in the tooth, and it may become difficult to bear in the years to come. There can be no doubt that I, too, am a human being from head to toe, and this realization cannot but lead me to growing troubles with my own self. To my dismay, this may be only a question of time. Yuckety yuck!

Addendum III (February 15, 2025)

My former beloved and I agreed to part our ways a year ago (“Troubles,” December 31, 2024). As the previous addendum suggests, I might remain a living contradiction in terms on only one count: my love for my own self. But there is yet another twist to this story, and it has to do with my unbounded optimism about the future of the human species. Once this civilization bites the dust, which it must any time soon, my fellow humans will eventually return to tribal life of yesteryear. I am convinced that they will relish it, for they are best suited to life in small communities resembling those of their primate ancestors (see, e.g., “On Primitive Communism,” May 7, 2013; and “Marx for Beginners,” January 13, 2020). Indeed, they will relish posthistory that will mirror prehistory. As a champion of life past abominable history, I do not feel that I am contradicting myself at all. In spite of the growing pessimism about the foreseeable future, which is palpable in all the media on offer nowadays, I am convinced that a small number of humans will survive all calamities awaiting them. Even more, I am convinced that they will return to Eden sooner or later. With heartfelt apologies to my former beloved, I now feel free of contradictions of any description.