Yours and mine is a clumsy sort of love.
"The powers awakened earlier in your life have been growing.You have been
responding to them probably clumsily, but they now form themselves into a
restlessness that cannot be ignored.You are old enough now to fall in love---not
the puppy love of the elementary years, not the confused love of the teens, but the
full-blown love of eligible men and women, newly matured, ready for life. I mean
romantic love, with all the full intense meaning of the word, with all of the power
and turbulence and frustration, the yearning, the retraining, and all of the peace
and beauty and sublimity of love. No experience can be more beautiful, no power
more compelling, more exquisite." -Boyd K. Packer
As I have pondered upon the mysteries of this past week {including the civil war occurring on this blog} I began to think about what has been motivating all of us, or what has been motivating myself in particular. I am motivated deeply by this new-found readiness to fall in love. I did not recognize it for what it was until recently, but now I perceive it for what it actually is. It is indeed a "restlessness that cannot be ignored".
This restlessness and yearning for love leads us to feast on Jane Austen novels, watch chick flicks, and appease our aches with guilty-pleasure blogs. Such as this one. It causes us to often act irrationally. The restlessness rears its emaciated head in binges on Ben & Jerry's, in bitter blog posts or Facebook updates, or yes, even in snide comments on said blogs. We get fed up with the dating scene. Some of us take fasts from dating, as though that would solve any of our problems. I took a two-year hiatus from men and The Fox spent the summer dating himself, and here we are dating a blog instead.
But darling readers, we, both male and female, are all suffering from the same syndrome of irrationality. We are a restless pack of hungry, hormone-driven young adults. {I acknowledge that a few of our readers are happily married. Mozel tav}. We are clawing our way through the dating scene. It is clumsy and I dare say, even ugly. Hideous and vicious are the ways in which we are conducting ourselves. I, The Coquette, am not exempt from this.
My past love life has been clumsy. I will be the first to acknowledge that fact. I approached the dating pool with fickleness; an immature sort of confusion. I circled the concrete basin with a doubting scowl on my face and tested the water with my toes. Every so often, I sat by the edge and dipped in my legs for a short period of time, and once I fell in involuntarily.
I have been bitter, snide, and immature, but now, now I am ready for a Jane Austen sort of love story.
That does not mean that I am cured from all that is sarcastic, or that all my bad dating experiences are all of a sudden no longer note-worthy, but I am standing poised for something completely new. Or at least to treat the experience in a completely different manner.
We are often told all the things that love is not. It is not a fairy tale. It is not a whirlwind of fancy. It is not easy. It is not a Jane Austen novel.
But by all that is good and holy in this world what is love?! And why is this obsession driving me to write anonymous blog posts under an obscure pseudonym?! Why is it driving me and the rest of the world in which I live to madness?!
Because I know that it must be the most sublime, frustrating, powerful, beautiful, exquisite, peaceful thing that I will ever experience in this life. And not partaking of it is wretchedness. Our physical bodies crave love and our souls are starved for it.
My dear friends, let's fall in love. I mean that with all sincerity. I will not stand for others to tell me what my love will not be. It will be whatever I make it. And I choose for it to be my own version of a Jane Austen novel. Wouldn't that be splendid? {Forgive me. I couldn't resist}.
Con Amor,
The Coquette
"Love is the foolishness of men, an the wisdom of God." -Victor Hugo
6 comments:
Baby, don't hurt me; don't hurt me no more.
(Couldn't resist, sorry.)
"For some people, falling in love is a magical encounter, something that seems to happen at first sight. For others, it is a growing affinity and attraction toward another, like budding blossoms that flower into a beautiful bouquet. Though the first type of love may also bloom like the second, it is often merely glandular, a cotton candy kind of love that has no substance. While it may begin with warm cuddles in moonlit glades, it can soon grow cold as honeymoon memories fade and familiarity turns to fault finding.
On the other hand, “divine” love, as President Spencer W. Kimball called it, “is not like that association of the world which is misnamed love, but which is mostly physical attraction. When marriage is based on this only, the parties soon tire of each other. There is a break and a divorce, and a new, fresher physical attraction comes with another marriage, which in turn may last only until it too becomes stale. The love of which the Lord speaks is not only physical attraction, but also faith, confidence, understanding, and partnership. It is devotion and companionship, parenthood, common ideals and standards. It is cleanliness of life and sacrifice and unselfishness. This kind of love never tires nor wanes. It lives on through sickness and sorrow, through prosperity and privation, through accomplishment and disappointment, through time and eternity.”
For the rest of the talk, go here: http://lds.org/ensign/2000/10/agency-and-love-in-marriage?lang=eng&query=fall+love
It gives you a whole new perspective on love and falling in love. :)
A refreshing view on love and dating! Thank you!
Wow. That just made my life make sense. Thanks!
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