Honest passion has an instinct that can be safer than conscious wisdom. What determines why people fall in love and with whom they fall in love? These questions are exceedingly complex. Some writers believe that people fall in love to overcome a sense of aloneness and separateness. The union of one person is the deepest need of humans. People experience their own solitariness, they long for the refuge of union with another through love, not threat. Some observers see loneliness as a by-product of our individualistic and highly mobile society rather than as an inherent part of the human condition. This view emphasizes the connectedness that we all have with the people around us—through all our social relationships, language, and culture. According to this view, love relationships are one aspect of a person’s social network, rather than a than a cure for the aliment of loneliness. We have seen that love is a complex emotion that can be explained, at least in some part, by various psychosocial interpretations of its origins. However, the answer to why we fall in love may also encompass, to some degree, complex neurochemical processes that occur in our brains when we are attracted to another. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

People caught up in the intense passion of blooming love often report feeling as though they are being swept away of that they feel like they are experiencing a kind of natural high. Such reactions may have a basis, at least, in part, in brain chemistry. A reaction pathway is a proposed pathway that gives all the intimate details of how reactants are converted into products which bonds are broken, which bonds are formed, and the timing of these processes are all postulated in a proposed pathway. The question of the timing of bond breaking and bond making is crucial to an understanding of how the energy content of a system varies as a reaction occurs. Before new bonds can be formed, releasing energy, some bond(s) of the original reactant must be broken; this requires energy input. Therefore, even in the exergonic reaction (where officially there is energy output) there will be come amount of energy input necessary before a reaction can take place. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

Unfortunately, particularly from the perspective of love junkies, the amphetamine—like highs associated with new lovey typically do not last—perhaps in part because the body eventually develops a tolerance for phenylethylamine (PEA). PEA is a chemical similar to amphetamine drugs—and those they produce amphetamine-like effects such as euphoria, giddiness, and elations. The amount of energy input varies for different reactions because of differences in the bonds being broken and formed and the timing involved. The minimum energy that must be added to the reactions to initiate a reaction is called the activation energy. Every reaction, expect one in which no bonds are broken, has an activation energy. A reaction with a large activation energy is slow; one with a small activation energy is fast. With time, our brains may simply be unable to keep up with the demand for more PEA to produce love’s special kick. Thus the highs we feel at the beginning of a relationship eventually diminish. This is a plausible chemical and biological explanation for why passionate or romantic love is short-lived. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Love is an energy that changes chemical reactions. Love is free energy and therefore the shape of love is like a road over a hill, it has its highs and low, and usually fluctuates up and down, but does not break, unless you fail to maintain it or an Earthquake (a person who is blamed for the breakup of a marriage or family, especially due to having engaged in an affair with one member of a couple) comes along. The curves in love extend from the reactants to products show how the energy change as the system of love progresses from reactants to products. The highest point on the curve of lose represents the maximum energy on the pathway of romantic or passionate love. The energy difference between this highest-energy point and the reactants is the activation energy, that is, the amount of energy input required to get over the hill or energy barriers between reactants and products. Passion makes one think in a circle. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

When a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion—or, in other words, when his hobby horse grows headstrong—farewell cool reason and fair discretion! To inspire hopeful passion is my destiny. The progress of the reaction pathway gives a graphical picture of the concept of reaction pathway. Keeping in this in mind enables us to see the relationship between pathway, activation energy, and kinetics, or rate of reaction. If the pathway from reactants to products involves going over a low hill, the highest energy point and the reactants of the activation energy is small, then the reaction is relatively fast, like a relationship based of lust (physical attraction). If, on the other hand, a high hill separates reactants and produces a large energy point and high reaction energy, then the reaction is slow, much like when you find someone attractive and smart, and are in love with them, but know you have to put in work to get them because they are not easy to come by. The relationship will develop slowly and is more like to last because you to do not get physically intimate right away. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

Activation energy and reaction rate are related in exactly the same way that the height of a hill relates to the speed with which you can surmount the hill. If it is an easy target, you would get intimate quickly, there was not much of a hill to go over and you got what you wanted right away, so the way down the hill or falling out of love is easy. However, if you came up this mountain and had to put in all the work just to be noticed, then the way down the hill is going to take a while and you are less likely to run down it because you will fall on your face, and suffer tremendous heartbreak after putting in all that energy to get to the peak of the mountain. You know, you will be like, I put in all this work and you just gone leave me like that? So if the relationship required a lot of work just to get started, you are less likely to let it slip away. The pathway that must be traverse involves quite a large energy point and reaction energy, or a high hill. Activation energy is provided by the energy of motion, the kinetic energy of molecules. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 8

When two people have allowed their relationship to slowly grown and they build trust, the gases are simply mixed together, the molecules are moving too slowly to provide the activation energy required to surmount the barrier. A spark allows the reaction to occur at an observable rate by providing the necessary activation energy to a few molecules. When these reactant molecules get over the barrier and from product molecules, the energy released as love forms continues to supply the required activation energy to get over the low points in a relationship. And although people often overlook proximity, or geographical nearness, in listing factors that attracted them to a particular person, it is one of the most important catalyst. How little do they know human nature who think they can say to passion, so far shalt thou go, and no further! #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Passion has eyes, as far-seeing in the dark as love’s. In the presence of finely divides metal particles, the reactant molecules can reaction by a different reaction pathway. We often develop close relationships with people whom we see frequently in our neighborhoods, in school, at work, or at church or synagogue. Why is proximity such a powerful factor? This new pathway has a lower energy different and reactivation energy and hence the reaction occurs more quickly. The metal remains unchanged in the course of the reaction. A material that speeds a reaction by lowering the energy difference between this highest energy point and the reactants of the activation energy, and is itself unchanged by the reaction. Passion has the sensitiveness of fever, and is as cruelly chilled by a tepid. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8