“Can I love several people at the same time”?

There was once a little girl who lived in a strange country, always called: Fidelia. And the inhabitants of that country were called Fidelians.
In that very special country, people could only love one person at a time.

It was totally unindicated to love several people at the same time.
Very early on, children learned that they had to choose who to love and who not to love.

It was as if the possibility of loving, two, three or four people at the same time, had triggered a real chaos.

Only one person: male, female or child had to occupy all their affective space.

The motto of that country was:
“One love per person.” Thus, in that country, the loves did not last too long. The life of a love was very short.
But, how is that possible? you’re going to ask me. Well, it’s obvious.

As it was only possible to love one person, as soon as someone knew someone new and a feeling was born between the two, she felt compelled (forced) to give up and even to leave the love beforehand in order to dare to live only the new love.
And, as life is made up only of encounters and each meeting contains in it the seeds of a possible love, you realize the difficulty of some.
Of course, some of them resisted and… they were attached.
To get attached to someone means to decide to tie yourself to that person and especially to always want them close to you.
Sometimes it means trying to capture her, so as not to let her go.
Attachment was a fairly widespread practice in that country.

One day, the little girl I was talking about at the beginning, rebelled.

She was about ten years old when she told her parents:
– I need to talk to you. What I am experiencing is very serious, I have a strong inner conflict.
I need to love you both at the same time and Jeremy, my best friend, and Sara, my girlfriend, and Julia, my cousin.
For me, it is impossible to love only one person.

I feel that I have a very big heart and in it there can be many different loves.

There is room for several loves at the same time.
She was very happy to have said all these things.
– But it is impossible, you know very well!
In our country you can only love one person at a time! That’s why we call ourselves Loyalians.
– But I can not live like this, I suffocate, shouts the little girl.
Her father tried not to get angry and very calmly exposing his reasoning to him.
– It is not good to divide your feelings into pieces.
If you love your mother, you can’t love me and me, your father, at the same time. And when you love me, you can’t love her at the same time.
Her mother endorsed her father and supported his argument with a firm conclusion:
– Where would we end up if we accepted to be able to love several people at the same time, as you say?
It would mean the end of our values, the disappearance of our family and our safety.
It would mean that there is no hope of having a whole love.

The little girl felt that she would be neither understood nor supported by her parents and, like many children who feel misunderstood, she locked herself in complete silence.

However, she confesses to a cat, who was her intimate confidant, because she did not dictate to her what she had to think, feel or say.

– I know that I am able to love several people at the same time, having a different love for each one, she whispers to the cat.

She looked at her quietly, carefully, with her mustaches motionless.
The little girl adds:
– What I tell you now is something that I feel deeply, and when I grow up, I swear to you, I will teach my children that we have this freedom to love several people at the same time.

On each of them, for what is, as it is.

My loves will neither be scattered nor cut into pieces, each of them will remain whole and unique.

I don’t know if the little girl when she got big kept her promise.

But I know that there is another country called Freedom of Feelings, where everyone knows that they can be loved by more people and can love more people.

A country where it is possible to love several people at the same time, without this disturbing someone….
A country where everyone feels they can love in a unique way.

Text by Jacques Salome