Nerd Nite Presentation on the "Science of Love"

Originally performed at Nerd Nite Austin 41: Word Nerds

Hello, I'm Krissi Reeves. Some of you regulars might recognize me from behind the bar. I am also one of the owners here at ND and I am also a writer, a solo performer and a poet.

I'd say that there are times in our lives when we all consider ourselves poets... of Shakesperean degree. And that is when we are madly and deeply in love. It is very possible that this is the time when we are simultaneously going absolutely ape-shit bananas...to an astronaut driving cross country in diapers degree . Which is much less poetic.

Poets love love. We also love metaphors. Author Mulan Kundera says that metaphors are decidedly dangerous because a single metaphor can give birth to love. When someone speaks to us in metaphor, we store those words into our poetic memory  - the special place in our brains where we store everything that charms or touches us and makes our lives beautiful.    

This is an elegant interpretation of why and how we love and probably explains why so many of us become self-declared poets when we fall in love. It is this particular Kundera book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, that led me to question more adamantly "why we love," “how we love” and more importantly "why do we love the people we do?" These questions have been asked a billion times, of course,  by dufus teenagers and worldly scholars alike. And of course asked for six seasons and two movies by a much more watered-down urban fahsionista version of Kundera, fictional sex columnist, Carrie Bradshaw. As she puts it “why is it that we always end up leaving  the good guy for some hot guy with a motorcycle and no checking account?" 

There are a lot of why's when it comes to love, sex and romance. So, driven by curiosity and my stubborn need to get it “right”, I began a quest for information. And I found lots of interesting data, but sadly no real answers.

However, I’d like to suggest three books on the science of love: 

This book, Phantoms in the Brain, really doesn't touch too much on the topic of love, but the author shares fascinating case studies of people with brain damage. I chose this book while going through a hard breakup so the subject matter of brain damage spoke to me. This book is an awesomely weird read and it also inspired the poem I am going to perform in just a moment.

Another book delving into the subject of the brain in love is The Brain in Love, by Dr. Daniel Amen. Some consider this guy a kook, many consider him an expert. But all this man does all day is study brain scans and his theories are worth checking out. In fact he declares that a healthy sex life cures everything from heart disease to depression to symptoms of ADD. So, if you are looking for a list of reasons to have sex, as if we need any, this is the book to read. Again, written by board certified psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel G. Amen. Or Dr. Amen, as I like to call him.

The next book on my list is a book I have not read yet. Nope. But, I know it's a gem. The book on why we love is called “Why We Love?” by Anthropologist and Relationship Expert, Helen Fisher. This book inspired her Ted Talks, which are quite fascinating and I have watched them repeatedly. Dr. Fisher taught me that when we fall in the love, the area of the brain most stimulated is the ventral tegmental, which is the exact area of our brain that is stimulated by eating chocolate and snorting cocaine. And when I heard this fun fact, I let out a very loud, ohhhh. (light bulb)

With that said, next time you find yourself fucking, fighting or falling in love and totally bewildered by your own behavior, I would suggest picking up one of these books. But, SPOILER ALERT!, they will not help you. They will only validate what we already know, when it comes to the desperate desires of our hearts and the insatiable demands of our loins, we are helpless. It's out of our control. These impulses are buried deep in the most primal part of our brains....so just sit back and surrender to the agony and ecstasy of love and the eternal mystery of our profoundly poetic and forever follied human brains.

On Monsters (An Excerpt from 'Sunday Morning Space Sermon')

5. Hopeful Astronaut

(MEE sits at an empty bus stop dressed in an astronaut costume. Not a uniform, a costume.  Next to her sits a Star Wars lunchbox with a Post-it note on it.  MEE is holding a giant chocolate cookie.)

 MEE 

A Neuroscientist I am not.

But according to recent scientific studies, it has been proven that romantic love is rooted in the ventral tegmental portion of the brain, the exact area of our brain stimulated by pure chocolate and cocaine.

According to my personal studies, 98.9% of adults, still sometimes believe that there are monsters living beneath our beds.

Beasts and dragons. Boogie monsters.

Skeleton bones beckoning us through the hollow glow of basement doors slammed shut, bolted and barriered by our darkest thoughts. Our saddest tales. Our most paralyzing feelings of alienation.

​2001: a Space Odyssey

In the 1950s, when NASA was seeking their first group of astronauts, they considered all sorts of daredevil types for the dangerous missions, but settled on government trained fighter pilots. Short feather-weights with large bladders and impeccable night vision. Daredevils are brave, sure…but, are they steady?

To this day, Astronauts must go through vigorous psychological testing. They must be able to handle elongated stints of isolation and act in heroic ways at the moment of crisis.

People might say that I’ve got the isolation part down.   In a crisis, however, my skills are limited to running in circles frantically waving my arms in the air and yelling, “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

So, an astronaut, I am not.

Doesn’t it seem that even our on our best days, we leave our living rooms, joys outnumbered by responsibility, hearts bubblewrapped like fine antique teacups? And sure, the heart is safe all cushioned beneath the plastic. But it cannot breathe. The atmosphere is suffocating. The weight is unbearable. Our hearts collapse in on themselves.

Houston, we have a problem. A major malfunction.  

(Eats cookie.)

This morning, however, something shifted. There was a disturbance in the force. I awoke to scorching beams of light sneaking through the slivers of my closet doors. I saw the horizon. I tasted bones. And chocolate.

I surrendered.

I’ve always only ever wanted to surrender.

And then, there was a knock. This may sound strange… but, it was love. Love literally knocked on my bedroom door. I answered. 

Love barreled through me, pushed me down on my pillow and breathed her name into the back of my throat. We wrestled. Wildly. I could taste her promises on my breath. I could feel the weight of love crushing the bones within my chest and bursting the bubbles of the teacup wrap. Pop. Pop. Pop. And with each burst bubble, I heard a louder stronger beat. Knocking. Breathing. Beating.  Love, for the first time in my life, was tangible. Was possible.

(Rubs crumbs from between hands)

My mind felt swept of its shadows. The big, scary monsters, as it turns out, were just cookie crumbs beneath my bed. 

Love left me a note on my closet door scribbled in Sharpie. Yup. Love is left-handed, by the way.   

(Holds up Post-it)

“To: You    

Love: Love

You have hereby been summoned. To a life with me. Defined by nothing but the constant tingle of your ventral tegmental and the eternal beauty of surrender. “

I have been summoned. Like the great fighter pilots of the fifties. But taller.

So, here I go. For the first time in my life, into the great beyond. Finally…finally ready for liftoff. 

(FADE TO BLACK)

(THE END)