The Enigmatic Battle between True Love and the Loch Ness Monster: A Socratic Dialogue

Krish Shah
Vanderbilt University

Abstract

It is 2021. The patio of a local Starbucks is occupied by True Love and The Loch Ness Monster discussing Bernie Sanders’s outfit at the Inauguration over a white mocha with vanilla sweet cream cold foam. A stranger passes by and questions whether the mocha contains extra caramel drizzle and concludes that the drink is a pump short. The conversation shifts focus from Bernie Sanders to a more concrete topic: True Love’s existence. The stranger notices True Love’s name crossed off on the cup and, intrigued by the intensity of their conversation, decides to take a seat and listen in. 

The Loch Ness Monster: I may be a skeptic, but your existence is a phenomenon far beyond scientific inquiry and faith. What are you?

True Love: I am what you make of me. 

The Loch Ness Monster: I don’t understand. Explain to me how your existence is so powerful and meaningful, but also so difficult to comprehend. 

True Love: I wish I could explain. I would say though that the reasoning and basis for my existence is not what you should be particularly interested in. 

The Loch Ness Monster: I have to be interested in your existence. There are aspects of life that are based on science and reason. Things like math, gravity, and chemistry. Some aspects are based on experience and sensation. Things like warmth and learning. There are even some aspects that require pure faith and belief. Things like religion and God and superstitions. You don’t fit into any of these categories. You don’t even resemble any of these categories. Yet I chase after you. The world chases after you. Why? 

True Love: It makes sense that the world revolves around certain principles and categories. Categories like reason, experience, and faith that group phenomena of the world, but there must be a connection that ties together all these features. Learning requires as much reason as experience. Superstitions require as much experience as faith and belief. Chemistry requires as much experience as reason. 

The Loch Ness Monster: Love and science? Help me understand. 

True Love: Just as math and chemistry problems require activation of the frontal lobe, I require certain chemicals to release and activate. In fact, chemistry plays a large role in my existence. It plays such a large role that there are multiple aspects of the brain that need to activate for me to exist. Perhaps that is why I am such a troubling phenomenon to understand. 

The Loch Ness Monster: That seems a bit too much for my brain to comprehend. I am not exactly built like that, but how does True Love connect the categories of the world?

True Love: To be a part of the physical world is one thing, to be a part of the emotional world is another. To be a part of the mental world is one thing, to be a part of the spiritual world is another. Aspects of life exist beyond experience and reason. Things like religion and superstitions and Deja vu. We don’t seem to notice these discontinuities. We view the world as continuous where the abstract connects to the tangible world. I serve as the bridge. 

Loch Ness Monster: That makes no sense at all. How does something so intangible and baffling connect categories of the world together? How can I feel objects and believe in superstitions, but not be able to find True Love? 

True Love: The question is not about capability. It is about willingness. Let me ask you something. You tell me that you have faith, but is your faith in the right place? 

The Loch Ness Monster: How would I know that?

True Love: You seem to have strong beliefs about the world, but do you have strong beliefs about yourself? Do you believe in yourself?

The Loch Ness Monster: How can I have faith in myself if nobody has faith in me? I believe in the world, but the world doesn’t believe in me. Nobody has faith in me.

True Love: You can’t expect the world to believe in you if you can’t believe in yourself first. If you can’t accept yourself, the world won’t accept you either. 

The Loch Ness Monster: This is such a tangent. How does this relate to you?

True Love: If you don’t have faith, you break the link between the categories that provide a continuum for the world. Without faith, you have no destination from the tangible. The bridge leads to nowhere. I lead to nowhere. The reason why my existence is so challenging to comprehend is because you are mindlessly walking across the bridge without realizing there is no destination in sight. You can’t expect a destination to magically appear because you are in search of it. 

The Loch Ness Monster: But I do have faith. I am faithful in religion and superstitions and luck. Doesn’t that count?

True Love: You asked me earlier about my power. Didn’t you?

The Loch Ness Monster: Yes. 

True Love: The power that you speak of comes from hope. Hope that stems from believing in the world AND believing in yourself. 

The Loch Ness Monster: But faith is faith, is it not? Does it matter what type of faith it is?

True Love: To be hopeful, you must believe in yourself and the world. If you do not believe in the world, you have no starting location to start branching away from to discover the intangible. You can’t find the bridge if you don’t know WHERE you are. Similarly, you can’t find the bridge if you don’t know WHO you are. How do you find the bridge if you don’t understand your blessed abilities? Your knowledge about WHO you are and WHERE you are provide the roadmap to discovering the bridge. 

The Loch Ness Monster: But I am not blessed in any way. I can’t understand who I am because there is no substance to me. I am basically nothing. How do I believe in that?

True Love: Everyone is blessed in their own individual ways. Everyone has a certain aura. A certain vibrance that will permit you to decipher the roadmap and lead you to the bridge. 

The Loch Ness Monster: Even if I want to believe, I can’t seem to fully invest in it. 

True Love: You don’t need to be fully invested in it. The slightest amount of faith in yourself will empower you with a refreshing sense of hope. Hope that fills in all of the gaps you previously believed in. It is this sense of hope that gives you a new direction and pathway to follow with your vibrance. Your newly discovered self determines the pathway leading to the bridge and presents you with a clear destination. 

The Loch Ness Monster: I guess there might be some truth to your words, but where do you even lead to?

True Love: I told you before. I am what you make of me and I can lead to whatever or whoever you want me to. 

The Loch Ness Monster: If you are what I make of you, why do people hurt in search of you? Why can’t you lead me to happiness? Why do people get hurt then? 

True Love: That’s a difficult question. In plain terms, pain is a motivator that enables you to keep searching. Searching for whatever or whoever you are looking for. It has nothing to do with WHO you are. Pain is an unfortunate byproduct of WHERE you are. However, it is necessary to get you to keep acting, keep existing, and keep searching. 

It was at this point that the stranger realized what all those sleepless and restless nights meant. They signified much more than action. They signified resilience. 

The Loch Ness Monster: What if the searching gets to be too much?

True Love: Resort back to your hope. Pain alone will devastate you, but in conjunction with hope, you will keep searching. You have to keep searching. You must keep searching.

The Loch Ness Monster: What about fear? What if I am too afraid to feel pain?

True Love: Keep your hope alive and it will shield you from getting consumed by that fear. Believe in your aura. Believe in your vibrance. Don’t let fear take that away from you. Let hope be a catalyst for the pain so that it doesn’t consume you. Instead, keep searching and strengthening your belief in who you are.

The Loch Ness Monster: It’s tough to accept when the pain hurts so much that you want to give up.

True Love: It is difficult to understand undoubtedly, but at the end it boils down to keeping the search alive. Keep the search alive. Don’t ever give up. Use your faith in the world and yourself as a bubble to shield you. Just like me, you are a phenomenon who has stood the test of time. Don’t give up now. Don’t let the negative energy in the world overpower the foundation of your blessed self. Keep the faith. 

The Loch Ness Monster: I really needed that today. I have been trying to believe in myself for years now, but for once I feel like there’s some sort of hope. An inspiring light at the end of the tunnel, but with that in mind I have to go and address something.

Likewise, the stranger wasn’t going to lose today. His troubled past was not going to get in the way. Not today. Who knew he would feel so empowered listening in on a conversation at  Starbucks.

Krish Shah: Who knew I would feel so empowered to write a story about love and a mythical creature. I guess it is quite phenomenal.

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Scaffold: A Showcase of Vanderbilt First-Year Writing, Volume 3, Spring 2021

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