True love

Love

Today I read an article by Sarah Healy on the New York Times online site.  It was a nice little story about how love is not always a Hollywood fairy-tale; but, that the reality of it is often far better and far more "romantic" than the idealized version.  I often feel like I had these grandiose ideas of love when I was growing up.  I had images of the sinking Titanic and jumping back on the ship to spend a few more moments with the person you love before an almost certain death. ("Why'd you do that Rose? Why?")  I thought love was Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde or Allie and Noah.  (Or, in my case, Jamie and Nick Carter.) 

But then, I grew up and found real love.  And in fact, I realized that love is never as glamorous as the movies portray it (Jack, being homeless and all, would of course smell like a stinky hobo and not like the Old Spice man); but it's complexity and depth is much more beautiful, romantic and profound than most movies make it out to be. 

This passage really spoke to me and I think it is really beautiful.  I hope you like it, too!

"My husband and I don’t have a great “meeting” story. We met in a conventional way and had a conventional wedding. And in some sense, we lead a conventional life.

But my husband has seen me at my worst, at my most vile. And he has seen me at my best. He knows the things I don’t tell anyone, and the lies that I tell everyone but him. I have made sacrifices for him and been angry about it. Sometimes his flaws are so egregious, so blatant, they are all I see. And sometimes his kindness is so stunning that I am humbled.

And that’s love. Big, epic, fairy-tale love. The kind of love people write about. The kind of love that could inspire a poem."  

Sarah Healy from When the Words Don't Fit