Omne Trium Perfectum

The zealous romantic, the austere realist, and the hopeless cynic. The zealous romantics appreciate their pulchritudinous surroundings to a fault. They embrace the naivety of their aspirations by excluding pragmatic solutions. While people decay with time, the romantic idolizes the immortality of their idea; the idea that love isn’t an ephemeral force but rather an innate proclivity.

The austere realists are neutralized by their own logical reasoning and take nothing more than what the world gives them. They have been inured to conduct an internal feasibility analysis when approaching decisions. Their cautious nature and cookie-cutter approaches are presented as realistic. However, the austere realists are defending their defense mechanisms designed to obviate the impact of failing by rationalizing failure.     

The hopeless cynic is ensnared by negative thought and misanthropy. While there is a famous adage proclaiming that “a cynic is a disappointed romantic,” I am inclined to interpret them as the final transformation of a romantic. While the transformation can move backwards, as in the cynic transforming to a romantic, my own life experiences and interactions with people have proved that a caterpillar cocoons into a butterfly; the butterfly doesn’t abdicate its power to fly by devolving into a caterpillar.

The connection in this Omne trium perfectum is based on the transformational phases of mankind. The zealous romantic finds the bastion of hope within their youth. They grow into the austere realist that are cognizant of life’s parameters. Lastly, they self-destruct into the hopeless cynic only to be born again.