“The Heart wants what it wants”

(Woody Allan)

By Antony Gabriel

This narcissistic phrase slipped from the lips of Woody Allan suggesting that his relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter should be considered as “normal”. Isn’t it odd that the much notorious split by America’s famous “two­some” should have denigrated into a loud clash of the so— called family values?

All of a sudden, family values take a new meaning – as well as “the affairs of the heart”

It is well known by lovers of all ages that “the heart” which is the center of all human emotions – has both rational and irrational elements. Biblically, the “symbol” of the heart represents the “seat” of the human person. The heart, as referred to in spiritual literature, is simultaneously the “womb” or “tomb” of each person; angels or dragons lurk there.

The heart also includes the highest “reasonableness” of the human spirit. Yes, the heart can beat with the fury of passion; and yes, the heart can also be “monitored” by channeling the flow of its emotion by virtuous living and intellectual integrity!

It is almost unimaginable that each person just follow the throb of the heart or the “burning of the flesh” wherever it leads. Who hasn’t been magnetized in an instantaneous flash by the illuminating presence of a seemingly new love?

Unless one is either a saint or a stone, I dare say that almost no one is immune to such fantasy – type attractions. The question abides: Does one act on the impulses of the heart/flesh without regard to the consequences? And whatever happened to discipline or self-control?

No one knows what happens in the private lives of “the rich and the famous” except what they make public – and is all too often a leveling of all morality.

In my opinion, it bothers me a great deal that in a time when North Americans need to refocus their attention on the nature of the family – especially in a time when there are definitions of what is THE FAMILY, we are given yet another “alternate behavior” or life style.

Woody Allan’s depreciating humor made us laugh, think and even raised our consciousness on certain issues. All of that has forever changed. Suddenly cynicism can only be the insidious by-product of a “philosophy” that accepts everything and every whim unconditionally, without reservation, without thought – and yes, without God and a personal spirituality.

As one sage said so wisely, “humankind is called to stand before God “with the mind in the heart!”