February 12 (Saturday) The Artsy-Fartsy Meetup

Location: Good Spirits at The Collective, Makati City (Google map)
Date: Saturday, February 12, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

RSVP on Facebook

When So-called Love Hijacks Reason aka The Artsy-Fartsy Meetup

This week we’re having a special meetup, organized by Ibyang! We’ll be holding the meetup in Makati at The Collective, down at Malugay Street. Here’s a guide for commuting to The Collective.

As Freethinkers are known to champion reason and logic, this meetup we are using Science, personal experience and observation to try to understand “Why we love”. To navigate this uncharted terrain, we are using Anthropologist Helen Fisher’s work as springboard for our own mental acrobatics:

“Romeo and Juliet, Paris and Helen, Orpheus and Eurydice, Abelard and Eloise, Troilus and Cressida, Tristan and Iseult; thousands of romantic poems, songs, and stories come across the centuries from ancestral Europe, as well as the Middle East, Japan, China, India, and every other society that has left written records.

Even when people have no written documents, they have left evidence of this passion. In fact, in a survey of 166 varied cultures, anthropologists found evidence of romantic love in 147, almost 90 percent of them. In the remaining 19 societies, scientists had simply failed to examine this aspect of people’s lives. But from Siberia to the Australian Outback to the Amazon, people sing love songs, compose love poems, and recount myths and legends of romantic love. Many perform love magic – carrying amulets and charms or serving condiments or concoctions to stimulate romantic ardor. Many elope. And many suffer deeply from unrequited love. Some kill their lovers. Some kill themselves. Many sink into a sorrow so profound that they can hardly eat or sleep.

From reading poems, songs, and stories of people around the world, I came to believe that the capacity for romantic love is woven firmly into the fabric of the human brain. Romantic love is a universal human experience.

What is this volatile, often uncontrollable feeling that hijacks the mind, bringing bliss one moment, despair the next?”

From Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love by Helen Fisher

Watch a TED talk by Helen Fisher

The reason why this also known as The Artsy-Fartsy Meetup is because everyone is encouraged to share your hidden talents before and after the discussions. We’ll do some singing, poetry/prose reading of your favorite authors or your own original work, performance art, dancing, play musical instruments (bring your own), juggle… You get the picture! We don’t only freethink, we freecreate.

Discussion Topics:
– Introductions and answer this: “What is the most irrational thing you have ever done for love?” (If “love” does not apply replace with “relationship” or “sex.”)
– God is Love: Does love exist or (like the concept of god) we made it all up?
– Is love better understood through art or through neurochemistry?
– Debate: “Monogamy is bad for the soul.”

After the meetup we usually have dinner and drinks. There are many great restaurants in The Collective but the beer drinkers might choose to go to Central BBQ Boy (map). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.