The Paradox Of Love

Now that parental control has become a thing of the past, a girl doesn't need to talk to her lover from the balcony any more. But if Juliet's speech to Romeo in the famous balcony scene is anything to go by, one might wonder if something more than the ladder has been thrown out in the process. Consider this snippet :

Juliet : My love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.

The lover of paradoxes that I am, these lines, 'the more I give to thee, the more I have', have exercised my imagination since I first read this play when I was in high school. Strictly speaking, of course, a paradox cannot be 'explained'; sometimes, however, one can get a 'feel' for it by considering some counter-paradoxes to it. Here are four of them that would have made Juliet blush at our lovelessness :

(a) The more I eat, the more I feel hungry.

(b) The more I shop, the more I want to buy.

(c) The more I have, the more I feel a lack.

(d) The more I get, the more I want.