Shahar Madjar, MD

I have two announcements to make, or rather, only one announcement, accompanied by an invitation. The announcement is that I have finally completed writing my second book, Take Love Twice Daily; Essays, Tales and Love Poems. It will be available this upcoming Valentine’s Day. I felt that Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to launch my book because the book is, as its name implies, about love.

The book includes 25 essays and tales, as well as seven short love poems. The book is divided into five sections. Each section provides the reader with a unique perspective about the subject of love.

Why would anyone want to read, or write, so many different essays, tales, and poems about only one subject? Imagine that you have decided to explore the concept of ‘butterfly’. You might be tempted to simply say that a butterfly is just a butterfly. But what fun would that be? No fun at all! Instead, think of all the ideas you could examine, and the questions you could ask: ‘Why are the butterfly’s wings colorful?’, ‘How does a butterfly fly?’, ‘How is a butterfly different from a bird, or an airplane?’, ‘Could a world without butterflies survive?’ And if you feel particularly poetic, you might ask, ‘Is a butterfly a creature that is half-fly, half-flower in the same way the mythical Centaur is half-man, half-horse?’

With each question, a new revelation emerges. With each question, more questions come to mind. And the more questions you ask, even if some, even if most, remain unanswered, the idea of what a butterfly really is, becomes more colorful, and more vivid in your mind, as if you have been examining butterflies your entire life, from different angles, from different points of view. All of a sudden, you start to know butterflies.

What if you could do the same about the concept of love? The question becomes ‘why wouldn’t you explore the idea of love?’ My book is an attempt to do just that.

In the first section, called Conversations, I ask questions such as ‘Could one fall in love with somebody, anybody, by simply asking him, or her, a set of questions?’, and ‘Why do men and women pursue partners that are 25% more desirable than themselves?’ And in the poem Ice, I inquire, ” … If I drill a hole/ If I thread a line/ If I hold a hook/ Will I catch your love? … “

In the second section, Mind and Body, I attempt to explore the connections between mind, body, and love. I begin by telling the story of Bud and Mindy. And later in this section, I tell the true tale of the Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and her long correspondence with the philosopher Rene Descartes. He believed that the mind and body are two separate entities. She had doubts. Their story is one lacking a good ending.

The next section is called Relationships. In the essay Love by the Numbers, I count the different ways one can fall for another, and I examine the nature of monogamists, serial monogamists, cheaters, and polyamorous individuals, even sologamists (those who happily marry themselves).

In the fourth section, Biology, I try to examine the complex biological aspects of love. To what extent are our relationships determined by chromosomes and genes? Are men really from Mars, women from Earth? Should Romeo insist on winning the heart of Juliet, or is love just a gross exaggeration of the differences between one person and everybody else?

In the final section, My Funny Bone, I try to resolve serious questions such as ‘Is the Man Flu real?’, to discuss potentially serious, sometimes life-threatening, consequences of laughter and vigorous sexual activity, answer a reader’s question about matters of the heart, and entertain myself with a poem about a redhead who lives in a matchbox.

The book is available on Amazon. But I would rather meet you in person, so here is my invitation: Please join me and the outstanding staff of Snowbound Books for the official world launching celebration of my new book, Take Love Twice Daily. The event will take place on Valentine’s Day, on Friday, February the 14th, at 5 PM, at Snowbound Books in Marquette.