The Matrix

The Matrix

carla.ornelas@gmail.com

Many people have lost their minds because of it. The question that drives them is a decision we all have to make. When life presents us with two coloured pills, most of us spend as much time as we can stalling the decisive moment. Eventually… we all must make that choice and pick an answer for the question that drives us all…

What is the matrix? Love? Where is the love?... what is real?

We search for it in the eyes of those we meet; those we befriend and those we interact with. Knowing that somewhere out there, there is someone with the ability to make us feel complete. For most of my life I've heard people refer to this person as one's soul mate. And even though everyone around you looks for this person, you find yourself inexplicably looking for that person too… a desire not taught but self developed.

This process repeats itself with two kinds of people: two pills:
Those who love and those who don't.

There are those that chase love like one chases a butterfly, a rainbow or a fairytale. I see these people fall in love over and over again. Once time has dissipated the effects left by the intoxication of pheromones, the veil of illusion is lifted: they realise that perhaps love did not exist where it once did and leave on their ongoing search for "true" love. Dreamers? Yes, maybe, definitely: but no more than you or I. for it's the desire that drives them: the matrix born within us.

Then there are those we label cruelly as the slaves to the system. They pick their partners as one would pick out a pair of shoes:
Colour - check
Texture - check
Soles - check
Height, size, thickness, durability, price, label… everything is considered before making the purchase that is intended to match the image chosen for oneself. And who can blame them? If love is no more than a passing feeling that fades then why not choose the person that best suits your ambitions and life's goals.
In a world where couples pair off and separate about as quickly as someone sneezes, we're all left wary and doubtful about who we should invest our hearts in. At an age were we can afford to be demanding, people decide to settle for no less than the best. And who is their best partner? They search for compatibility in likes, dislikes, physical features and career choices. And after a trial test drive, if the specimen isn't up to their standards you simply trade them in for another.

Take the blue pill and you choose the perfectly balanced relationship basing your choices on carefully calculated and analysed factors. Such as: "he'll never cheat on me; he'll treat me like a princess; my parents love him: he responsive and credible enough for a future"
These of course are not guarantees but safe bets.
Take the red pill choosing to try out every possible relationship. No one of the opposite sex can be seen as merely a friend without being a possible candidate. Throw all caution to the wind and with it possibly your soul as well, as you analyze every detail as a sign.

There are those of us who choose not to make a choice… and that too is a decision.
While some people choose to live out a script that is written, others prefer to write it as they go along. Destiny is written for some, defied by others and then there are those of us that sit somewhere in between. We stare at those two pills that the strange hand of fate puts before us and choose not to pick one.

How do you tell these people apart? Easy.
The love struck ones live life through their pretty painted glasses, breaking down if you try to make them see through anything else than their pink lenses. The calculists are those who refuse to bring emotions into their decisions often lashing out if you attempt to speak to their hearts… and the inbetweeners?... they're usually the ones you find looking out into the distance, the ones who struggle to believe in love but cannot deny its existence; the ones who live on a prayer; perhaps still trying to decide which pill to take.

There is nothing more I enjoy more than finding these wanderers in the dense crowd. They look at you with the tired of eyes of someone who still hasn't found what they're looking for and smile in silent recognition. Not wanting to wear the pink glasses, they refuse however to sell their hearts knowing that somewhere out there, there exists the one: that one person that their hearts were programmed to search for.

The Answer is out there if you dare to look and allow it to find you…
That person may or may not be out there:
The One that rules the matrix you were born into.