“One of the world’s most beautiful buildings, the glorious Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra, India, is evidence of the love of one man, Shah Mumtaz, for his favorite wife” (Janaro & Altshuler) pg 409
I just want to focus on the part where it says his favorite wife which implies he had more then one. At first I thought how could he truly love her if he had more then one women in his bed but, that’s just how the culture I’ve been raised in views love as being an unbreakable bond between two and all of your love goes towards your significant other. I had to open my mind to try and understand how a man with possibly a harem of women could truly love one of his wives. In modern culture this would obviously be frowned upon but, in the times that he built the Taj Mahal harem’s were the norm for men in power and almost a sign of wealth/power. India is also a very culturally diverse compared to America so my view is biased and therefore almost irrelevant as he probably did love her or he was in trouble with her I honestly can’t decide.
“The debate continues over whether what we call “love” can mean anything more than lust” (Janaro & Altshuler) pg 411
I think the line between love and lust is very blurry especially for hormonal young people. People want to believe they are in love as it’s heavily romanticized but, these feelings are often just the desires of lust. I believe one can love somebody and lust for them as its only natural to be attracted to the one you love. At the same time though I think people misinterpret their lust for love because they want to believe they are in love when the only thing the relationship revolves around is the lust for one another. I think my generation has a huge problem with this thinking that they have found the love of their life when they just both find each other sexually attractive.
“It was expected that every well-bred gentleman of means would keep at least one mistress” (Janaro & Altshuler) pg 415
I just find it funny that during a time when church was of utmost importance and adultery was considered a sin people would just turn the cheek and feign indifference over men being able to commit adultery. Now if a women had men as her mistresses I think she’d probably be burned at the stake during the 1700s. These two polar opposites in what is morally right at the time just are almost laughable. As in they have all these things your supposed to do if you are a Christian or not to do but, it’s alright if the wealthy gentlemen are lustful and keep a couple extra ladies close to them. I could almost hear “boys will be boys” as I read this quote and just goes to show how corrupt the Christian faith is at it’s core.
Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2017). The Art of Being Human: the Humanities as a Technique for Living (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
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