Growing up, I was secretly obsessed with romance. If you knew me well enough to see me sob pleading cries for Anne and Gilbert to be together (Anne of Greengables) and prove true love victorious, you may have observed some indication. Or you may have just thought I was an oddly over-emotional pre-teen, which in all honesty, is also probably true. However, they are not the only “fictional” couple I have felt strong affliction and empathy for.
Underneath it all, I have always possessed this deeply rooted desire for love to win. True love. And yes, I am one of those schmucks who has always believed there is such a thing. How you go about defining such a mysterious concept, I could only begin to imagine. I do believe it exists though. (Conversely, that theory gets re-evaluated periodically as well.)
I heard the term the other day: “an incurable romantic.” And I thought, “Yes! Exactly, that’s incredible.” How many people are courageous enough to stand behind such an idea? I adored the sound of it.
I have two lines of thinking. One of them revolves around us being a jaded population of people. I mean, really- why shouldn’t we be skeptical with the level of chaos and dysfunction so prevalent of our environment? How many of our relationships or plans fall apart before they’ve ever even taken flight?
The other line of thinking is that I don’t feel confident that a majority of people know how to define romance for what it truly is. Or what it could be. Should be. I mean, it is a term so casually tossed around and associated with very superficial meanings. When it is a thing that can man a whole lot. It’s the thing. [which was a conversation recently held that led me to bring the debate public in order to incorporate additional perspectives]
If Valentine’s Day and the way people plan for and celebrate it is to be used as a visible, commonly accepted depiction of “romance”- what does that reflect about society’s perspective on the matter? Granted, I am making a very obvious example of a cause that is very cliche. It makes sense though, doesn’t it?
How do you define romance? What does it mean to you?
It means a lot to me…so much so that in latter years, I avoid using the phrase almost entirely because I don’t think it adequately expresses my connection to the matter.
There’s the rub. When I consulted Merriam-Webster’s definition of romantic, I found:
Dreamer's Crayon Box 