During this wonderful and decidedly short break, I had a conversation with someone about love. Being an avid reader on this site, my compatriot decided that I did love my family. The person argued that how I felt for my parents constituted love, and that once I meet a little blonde pig-tailed girl for whom I felt the same, it was time to get married to her and skip off into the sunset.
At the time, I politely disagreed and changed the subject.
I know I have another article up about love, and another one from a second mystery author on the way, so I'll go back and re-read that article to make sure this isn't a retread. (For those interested, http://ideasofidealists.blogspot.com/2011/05/chocolates-and-flowers-or-love-of-love.html). Gosh, were my writings all that short back then? Is all of this clutter (Hyuk hyuk hyuk) detracting from my message? Eh, whatever, I'm enjoying myself.
One of my biggest detractions from the assumption that you should automatically love your parents and your siblings is what it implies. I'm not really sure where I stand on the "one-true-love" thing, but I don't think I'm for it. The idea that there is only one person in the world that can make you happy is daunting, considering there are 6,999,999,998 other people besides the two of you to sift through.
The thought that anyone you endure for long enough can, nay SHOULD, be loved is one I don't like. I prefer to actually have connections with people, to find common interests or ideas to start a friendship with, not just common genes. If your family is horrid, for e.g., should you automatically love them?
No! You should not! Now I'm not saying that my family is horrible, quite the contrary. I really do like my parents, and my sister isn't quite as bad as I make her out to be. We just aren't really compatible. If she was not a relative of mine, I doubt we would be friends. Hell, I don't know if I would be friends with any of my relatives!
One major thing that bugs me about love is how incessantly it is pushed into movies, television shows, and video games. It seems that for every romance that fits and makes sense in the context of the piece, there are roughly ten others that were shoe-horned in for no apparent reason! Lazy story writers use romance as a way to add some more emotional weight to the piece, without needing relatable characters or interesting scenarios.
I'm not opposed to the idea of love. I even disagree with the second comment on my first article about love, that says that teenagers can't experience it. Why? Do we lack the proper glands to feel love? There are plenty of adults who say that they are in love when they are not, so why can't teenagers actually be in love.
I thought I was in love once. Perhaps I was, though I doubt it. They say that when you are in love, you know it, and I didn't know it, so perhaps I wasn't. The time I thought I was was awesome though. Love, if popular culture has taught me anything, is the greatest thing in the world. Dumbledore was a big fan of the thing, and if there's one guy I agree with on almost everything, it's Albus.
But it shouldn't consume a life. Love, in my humble opinion, should be the salt on the pretzel. While it isn't 100% necessary, you'd say it was missing... something without it. But don't put too much on, or you will miss out on the flaky rest of the treat.
That was a bad analogy for me though, because I love salt. Seriously.
Thanks for reading and considering,
-J.Valett
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