On Frogs and Cigar Boxes
When I was a kid I sometimes tried to capture frogs to make them my pets.
Time and time again, I would tenderly put the frightened creatures in cigar boxes lined with napkins. And, time and time again to my dismay the frogs would stop eating and die. Even if I set them free at that point, they would still die.
From that sad legacy I learned that love always requires consent. It is not an act of love, but of abuse to try to possess another being, or even to try understanding them only from my own context.
Our paths may intertwine, but no other sentient being is here to decorate my world. I do not love another if I do not love them AS other.