True Love

I want to talk about love.

Because, as I write this, it's Valentines Evening.

And because the man next door is this moment standing on the sidewalk serenading his lady inside - or else he is not feeling well, having had too much to drink.

Because, for better or worse, on key and off, love is in the air.

And because I've been in love with one man long enough to know what love looks like, and to know that most movies and most books get it wrong. You may know this too. I hope my neighbor knows.

Tolkien certainly did:

Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might have found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.
J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter to Michael Tolkien, March 1941

On this day after Valentines, I'd like you to write a caption to tell me something true about love, something the books and movies don't divulge. I've provided some pictures for inspiration from my Pinterest board, Pictures That Want To Be Stories.

And I've done the first one to get the ball rolling:

1.

A thousand things could be true of him that moment. And if they could progress past the moment to a kiss and then to years, and then to a silver anniversary, then those thousand things would taper to seven or eight or fifteen things that were true of him, and they would be the same old things, and the seven or eight things about her would become old as well. And then the mystery and possibility would be replaced with what? With that un-named something that she saw between women with whiskers and men with breasts?
She beckoned him in. 

Sorry folks. I'm tired tonight. But please see what you can do with this picture or any of the others.

We love to read what you have to say.

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Love Story or Romance?

 

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I thought we might take a look at some favorite love stories.  I’ve compiled a short list containing books that don’t fall into the romance genre, but have strong romantic elements.

Gone with the Wind

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

Rebecca

The Princess Bride

The Time-Traveler’s Wife

Persuasion

Wuthering Heights

Little Women

The Painted Veil

Snow Falling on Cedars

Le Morte de Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Roundtable

Anne of Avonlea

It’s just a partial list and I know you could add some fabulous choices of your own.

These stories are more than romance but would not be the same stories without it.  Emotional tension weaves through the plot - the kind of tension with which we can all identify.  It moves the story along, raising the stakes.  People, society, misunderstandings and forces of nature conspire against the lovers and threaten to keep them apart.  

I recently read an article that declared Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre to be romances, but Gone With the Wind and Romeo and Juliet to be love stories.  The difference was in the endings. Romances have emotionally satisfying and optimistic endings, but love stories do not. The characters may not end up together in a ‘happy ever after,’ but we are given to believe that their love is declared in a way that eternally binds them, and for certain stories, that’s enough.

I’m not against the optimistic ending, but sometimes a love story is called for. Which do you prefer and why, or would you like to add a book to the list? We’d love to hear from you.