Name of the Poem: Let’s Do the Right Thing

What is it about:

This poem is about two married people, a man and a woman, who become very good friends as they journeyed through life.  They begin experiencing various emotions when they are in the company of each other and finally put a finger on the main emotion that was developing, Love.  

It is a fictitious story about how they share almost everything under the sun with each other and then take the most difficult decision in their lives to part ways for the sake of their families as they know they are nothing without them.  

Why did I choose such a topic? 

The reason behind choosing such a topic was more of a personal one wherein I have seen people around me glorify love between two people, worship that emotion and even sacrifice things to achieve it. I just wanted to evoke a feeling within the readers of this poem to think about other perspectives that this emotion comes about in and the choices in life many people have to take because of that.  

Love is not an emotion wherein everything takes place with warmth, care etc. It is an emotion that knows no bounds and can strike when you least expect it to strike, even between people who could be happily married and attached to someone else.  There are other a lot of other emotions that go hand in hand with the principle emotion and that is exactly what I wanted to touch upon and hoped to bring out in that simple poem.

The main intention was to break the illusion that Love is just a happy or sad feeling between two people which can progress into various levels of achievement or loss. I wanted to touch upon the topic, that the emotion called Love also came with a responsibility attached to it.  So all I wanted to do is make the readers think of that emotion from a totally different perspective altogether and feel the emotion felt between the two characters of this poem when they took the decision they took for the sake of their families.

What are the emotions involved in this poem:

As mentioned before, there are lots of emotions that go hand in hand with the principle emotion of Love. They are as follows:

1. Friendship:  The lady in the poem was in search of a friend with whom she could share her pain and burden with to make her load a little lighter. That was all she was praying for when she meets this man who becomes her friend and together they embark on a journey of friendship.  
2. Sharing: As friends, this man and woman shared their thoughts and views with each other and they both contributed their points of view on the topic thereby giving a different perspective of the situation altogether. It helped lessening the other person’s burden thereby changing their outlook to life. 
3. Dependence: Wherein both the friends became very close to each other. Wherein the man became her rock of support that helped her with her problems in life. He became the shoulder she used to cry on and the ear who listened to everything that was said.
4. Happiness: Both of them felt happy in each others company wherein the woman found her reason to smile again while this man taught her to look at life positively and learn from the experiences she was feeling around her. 
5. Purpose: Wherein there was a purpose that was developed in this particular friendship wherein the woman was learning how to cope with her marriage which was in trouble, learning to understand her husband from a man’s point of view apart from being a mother to her child.
6. Care: The man cared for this woman without asking for anything in return and she would have have done the same thing for him too, I’m sure but the events haven’t been documented in the poem.  
7.  Love: All the above emotions and feeling gave rise to the ultimate feeling of love wherein the woman suddenly realises that she has fallen in love with her friend as she began waiting for him, counting the days that they were apart, having butterflies in her heart etc. She knows it cannot go on and even tries to hide that emotion only to realise that the man has fallen for her too. 
8. Responsibility: The couple are now faced with a dilemma whether to go ahead with their love or sacrifice it for their families. They know what they feel for each other is true but it cannot go ahead as it complicate their lives in a very different manner.
9. Sacrifice: The couple know that they came to each other for the sole purpose of friendship and couldn’t let Love take over and ruin their family life.  So they decide to sacrifice their love and friendship for their families as they know that without that little unit they have created they are nothing in this world.
10. Selflessness: It is not an easy task to put an end to something that gives you immense joy and pleasure for the sake of other prevailing situations that need more attention. In this case, the families of both the people needed more attention and they made a choice to choose that responsibility to the vows they had taken to live and protect them till death did them apart. 
11. Hurt and Heartbreak: Although it is not documented in the poem, the couple would have been going through the phase of hurt and heartbreak wherein they would have had to learn to cope with that new emotion on their own without each others’ support.

What is the Intention behind this poem? 

Sometimes certain people pass through our lives despite having a perfect relationship with kids etc. and before you know it there is an attraction which can turn everything upside down. It’s that attraction which can cause a lot of electricity when you least expect it and how do we safeguard ourselves from such a thing.

Avoiding the person is a good idea but when it is an emotional connection which is way beyond the physical attraction it is the hardest thing to do as the mind and emotion holds no barriers in reality as you are one on a different plane of existence and bonding altogether.

This poem is more about the emotional attraction and mind bonding that took place wherein the couple took the precaution to avoid the physical attraction which was another form of bonding that could have destroyed two families as that is the ultimate proof of infidelity in the eyes of the law.

What is Emotional Attraction and Mind bonding?

Emotional Attraction and Mind bonding develops under the right circumstances wherein you begin to see similarities between the two people in question out here. Similarities for could include the following: hobbies, ideologies, career, education, or some other common ground. It is on the basis of this that an emotional attraction starts to form.

An emotional attraction can also occur even when a physical attraction does not. And in this case, the bond may even be stronger between the two who connect, since no preconceived notions based on physical appearance have occurred.

As described in this poem, the couple used to share topics of discussion and come up with solutions with each other and that is what brought about a bond between the two of them. It gradually developed into a physical attraction wherein the woman began to have flutters in her heart, waiting for her friend etc.  They already had the romance going on as they used to walk by the lake and beach most of the time. In this case, the romance was more selfless in nature, wherein they did romantic acts for the enjoyment and pleasure of the other person. They received their enjoyment and pleasure through the other person’s happiness. It was more enduring in nature.

This romance had reached the passion stage wherein it began telling on their friendship and the way they were behaving with each other. They had a choice of either taking their relationship to the next level or letting it die and they chose the latter as they didn’t want intimacy for the sake of their families and commitment would have never ever happened unless they chose to do away with their families and selfishly pursue their romance. 

In my point of view, the woman was very dedicated to this particular relationship although she had her marriage to think of and rectify. The only reason I can identify with the woman is because I am one too and probably it is easier for me to see what the relationship really meant to her.   For her, the emotional attraction was more of her act of solace from the pain she was facing within her marriage and no doubt she was getting help to rectify those problems in her marriage, but her vulnerability of the situation she was in provided the ideal atmosphere to open her heart out somewhere else although her critical reasoning didn’t permit her to do anything beyond that. It told her she was married and that she had a family which would be neglected and broken if she went ahead with something like this. It also reminded her that her friend was a married man with a family.  That was the main reason why she had tears in her eyes when the two of them decided to put an end their budding relationship.  

The man on the other hand had a more level-headed thinking wherein he knew that the families would suffer if the romance went ahead to the next level and the levels after that and reasoned it out with the woman, whom he knew would understand where he was coming from as she was in the same situation. It was a better sweet end to a romance which may have meant a lot to both parties involved as it was not going to lead anywhere. 

Meeting is a pleasure,

Parting is a pain.

Parting can be made sweeter,

If memories remain.

By Anisha Achankunju