For some reason writers and movie makers tend to see the “Great Romantic Stories” as those where love never quite makes it. Romeo and Juliet – dead before they reach their one week wedding anniversary. Lancelot and Guinevere – adultery, guilt and ultimately loss all round. Scarlett and Rhett of Gone with the Wind – unhappy apart, even more unhappy together.
Tragedy may make for a gripping story, but it implies that romance is so fragile that it rarely endures in a real relationship past the “I do” wedding vows.
How depressing.
I once read a book where the lead character said that “true love” was a man who got up in the middle of the night to get an extra blanket when his wife was cold. I agree with her. Romance isn’t love poems and soft music, although both can be appealing, and it isn’t dramatic tragedies keeping lovers apart either.
I think true romance is the man getting up on a cold winter night to get that blanket, because real love is someone doing something unexpected and unasked… simply to make you happier or your life better. Romantic gestures are fun and exciting, but having someone you can trust with your heart and life is of far greater value. Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend for some, but I’d rather have the man who loves me be my best friend than have the diamonds. The fact my husband buys me five red roses(to mark a special anniversary) is lovely and romantic, but the truth is that the fact that he checks every night that I’m warm is way more romantic to me than flowers could ever be.
In China a husband’s love created a stairway of 6000 steps carved into a mountainside. He carved them so that his wife could get around the mountain easier. This true story, with pictures, can be found here.
Tragedy may make for a gripping story, but it implies that romance is so fragile that it rarely endures in a real relationship past the “I do” wedding vows.
How depressing.
I once read a book where the lead character said that “true love” was a man who got up in the middle of the night to get an extra blanket when his wife was cold. I agree with her. Romance isn’t love poems and soft music, although both can be appealing, and it isn’t dramatic tragedies keeping lovers apart either.
I think true romance is the man getting up on a cold winter night to get that blanket, because real love is someone doing something unexpected and unasked… simply to make you happier or your life better. Romantic gestures are fun and exciting, but having someone you can trust with your heart and life is of far greater value. Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend for some, but I’d rather have the man who loves me be my best friend than have the diamonds. The fact my husband buys me five red roses(to mark a special anniversary) is lovely and romantic, but the truth is that the fact that he checks every night that I’m warm is way more romantic to me than flowers could ever be.
In China a husband’s love created a stairway of 6000 steps carved into a mountainside. He carved them so that his wife could get around the mountain easier. This true story, with pictures, can be found here.
Six thousand steps, each one carefully carved… it must have taken him years and years. How many steps are there to expressing real romance and love? Those little gestures and simple caring things: sharing the last chocolate, making sure your spouse is warm at night, telling her she looks beautiful no matter how old she gets, letting your husband have the last slice of cake, sitting by a bedside all night when the one you love is ill, holding your loved one close when they need to cry and grieve… the list is endless and beyond counting.
Six thousand steps carved into the heart of the one who is loved. What could be more romantic than that?
Six thousand steps carved into the heart of the one who is loved. What could be more romantic than that?
You're ABSOLUTELY right, M! It's the little things that count, the little gestures that too often go unnoticed and cherished.
ReplyDeleteIf we remember to count and cherish ALL the little gestures, I bet we'll feel SO wealthy!!! ;-D
Oh yes, Michelle, melodrama sells books and movies - it seems we can't get enough of it - as long as it's not a part of our own life.
ReplyDeleteUnrequited love, lost love, impossible love, all tickle our imagination as entertainment, much more than the continuing, warm loving gestures we hope to receive ourselves.
I'm as guilty as anyone. "Bridges of Madison County" and "Prince of Tides" are both tales of lost, impossible love, yet whenever I think of a love story in book and film, those two always spring to mind first as modern classic examples. :-)
Hi Amel
ReplyDeleteyep, don't need diamonds to be rich in love. ;-)
Twilight
Very true, but I still had a chuckle as one of the things where hubby and I "bonded" was our mutual dislike of "Bridges of Madison County". :-D
LOL! I suspect you were too young to appreciate the finer points!
ReplyDelete;-) One needs to be of "a certain age".
lol
ReplyDeleteTerribly romantic story... makes me a little mad at my husband though.
ReplyDelete