A letter for my love.
I think love means accepting the truest parts of someone while destroying the false ones,
helping them to become who they truly are, the strongest version of themselves.
But as long as I need you, I can’t love you.
In his autobiography, Nietzsche wrote, “…One has to be set firmly upon /oneself/, one has
to stand bravely upon one’s own two legs, otherwise one /cannot/ love at all.”
If I need you, if I can’t stand on my own two legs without you, I’ll use you like
a crutch.
Instead of accepting you as you are, I’ll shape you into what I need you to be for me.
And in this way, I’ll make you false.
I’ll make you into what I need you to be rather than what you really are.
Without independence, it’s impossible for me to love you.
But even though I don’t need you to care for me, it doesn’t mean I don’t want you
to.
I want what’s best in you to wanna bring out what’s best in me.
I want what’s true in us to voluntarily go to war against what’s false in us, so
we’re both each other’s greatest ally and greatest enemy.
But this type of partnership is impossible without independence.
As long as I’m dependent on you, I need you to be something for me.
I need you to be the parts of me that I refuse to develop.
And so you won’t be you, you’ll just be the missing parts of me.
And if I love you for being a part of me, then I don’t love you.
I just love the parts of you that are me.
I just love me.
Hearing my echo in your voice will only drive me crazy.
And like Narcissus looking into the waters, I’m just gonna drown in your reflection
of me.
This love is a sickness.
I want independence so I can love you how you deserve.
I wanna let you take your natural shape rather than forcing you into what I need you to be.
And I realize now that this independence, this freedom, can only come through a psychological
death.
A part of me needs to die.
I need to let go of the part of me that needs you to be, or act, a certain way.
I don’t want any expectations or ideals for you.
I don’t wanna tell you you should do this or that.
I don’t want any ideas about what you should do.
I wanna accept you and work with you as you are.
And only by not needing you to be anything for me can I be independent, and only by being
independent can I truly love you, which is to create a space for you to blossom into
what you really are.
I hope you understand.
Love, Justin
That concludes my exploration of Nietzsche’s teaching, and as you can tell, this time I
did it a little differently: in the form of a letter.
As always, this is just my opinion and understanding of Nietzsche, not advice.
If you’re looking for another video to watch after this one, I recommend watching my video
“Nietzsche - Stop Running from Your Problems”.
I’ll put a link to it in the description below and in the top right of the screen right
now.