Vicissitudes and Victories

Love (and its imitators)

My girlfriend and I went to see a romantic comedy tonight called The Lake House. It really told a touching story of how two people connected with one another even though they were separated by time. These two people came to know and love one another by writing letters to each other. At the very end of the movie they are united in a magnetic scene when the guy, Keanu Reeves, embraces the girl, Sandra Bullock, and they kiss passionately letting the audience know that they will live happily ever after.

After the movie, we went on a walk, and my girlfriend told me that the movie perpetuated some deeply held stereotypes the world has about love. She said that when girls watch too many romantic movies, they come to expect the type of romance portrayed in these movies. They come to think that love is about longing and finally finding. It is about passionate kisses that come after someone decides they cannot live without someone else. It is about handsome men chasing their princesses.

We decided that this might portray one aspect of love, but it is the most shallow part. Every relationship does have those big, life-changing moments when a couple realizes that they genuinely care for each other. They realize that each for the other is like water that quenches some deep thirst. The thing that the movies don't show well is that these monumental events only occur when they are built on thousands and even millions of microscopic moments. Affection is created and consummated as two separate people slowly begin to merge their individual lives. This merging occurs moment by moment until there comes a time when they realize they care for and want to serve one another as much as they care for and serve themselves. That is how love truly occurs, and that is what the movies will never really be able to portray.

posted by Joel @ 11:05 PM