Where is The Love We Were Promised?
Because friendship got the memo, but romance missed the call.
I'm deluded. Before I used to be content knowing it. But now I know that ignorance is for fools and it ain't bliss.
Your love will come when you least expect it. They say. Live and let love. They say. What is meant for you will find you. They say.
If all this is true, how come I've never seen a love like in the movies? How come I've never seen a book man in real life? How have I never seen a male, written by a woman be born of a woman in this reality?
And I'm not even talking about myself, I'm talking people around me. Is it that the love neva reach the people I know side? Am I blind? Or am I just tripping?
Sure I've seen people in love. But not the kind of love I'd like to be in. They say love is blind but if that's how it feels to not see I'd rather not, love?
People around me get married and they love each other but I always wonder, this love doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like the love Percy Jackson has for Annabeth. Neither does it feel like the love Adil has for Adina (from the movie Big Love) Maybe I've got it all wrong, maybe the love in the movies and in books are wrong and messed up and unrealistic maybe that's not how love really looks like.
But I've seen friendships like in the books and I've seen friendships like in the movies. I'm in friendships like those in fairytales. Sure not everyday is easy and sure some days are tough but the love is loving.
Is this to say that romantic love is dead? Or is this to say that I'm blind? Is this to say I haven't had good role models of romantic love in my life?
Or am I missing it?
But if I can see and experience platonic love for reals then why can't I see romantic love or what I consider to be true romantic love around me? Am I broken? Am I asking for too much?
I used to believe in true love because I read a lot romance novels growing up - romance was and is my favourite genre.
But, I think it's time for me to grow up. Apart from social media I have never seen a magical kind of romantic love. The people I'm close enough to see their relationship, it's either the relationship has comma, or it just feels like they're reading a script. For the other people, I don't know them well enough to make any conclusions. And as for myself well...
I know people who still believe in magical love. Who still believe that romantic love can be as strong and beautiful and spontaneous and reliable as the love in books and movies.
But maybe they have had that type of love modelled for them. Or maybe they're still hoping and perhaps searching.
I wish I had a conclusion, something perfect to tie and sum up all I've been saying like a bow on a gift. But I don't. I can't say that I don't think the people around me that claim to be in love are not in love. I'm not the love police.
I can't say that love is dead and the love on screens and on paper are fake, I'm not the love police.
And I most certainly can't say that the love that the people I know have for their partners ain't magical. Because, again, I'm not the love police.
But if were - the love police that is - I'd be saying it.
Yes call me judgemental, and whatnot. But when you've spent your whole life watching love stories unfold - both on pages and in the lives around you - and all you see is the difference between what could be and what is... well, maybe being the love police isn't such a bad job after all.