Whenever a major holiday like Christmas, New Year’s, or Valentine’s Day approaches, it’s almost a given that some friend or acquaintance from Facebook will get engaged. Their smiling faces will show up in your feed, and if you’re lucky, maybe even a real action shot or video which catches the special moment as it unfolds: guy on one knee, girl with hands over face covering her surprise and glee.
Although now in my 70s, (and having first discovered JRRT in my early HS years), I've always felt 'romantic love' as a where-all, be-all 'guiding star' (nav vector?) is vastly overrated, and I would certainly agree that ALL human beings are, ad simplicissima verba, equally unfortunate co-partners in this chaotic plane of human experience called life. However (brave words!), I have found myself inextricably caught up in the tendrils of 'romantic love' regardless and in spite of my intellectual inclinations on this subject, throughout this same life I've led. Perhaps it is partly due to also being a life-long 'unbeliever' who views the human species as merely another biological life-form that is subject to the pairing/mating mandates of biological necessity?
Human beings have an unfortunately solipsistic view of the magnitude of their own importance, which when viewed on a truly cosmic scale is a farcical proposition of the most exponentially overstated nature. In actual, bare-bones truth, we're not much better than the myriad other 'lesser' ("lower") life-forms we share the planet with...the only real difference being that we are afflicted with this cursed ability to reason, to imagine and to fantasise! Such benighted creatures seem to have much need of 'guiding stars' (read: romantic love).
In my case, after having gone through a disproportionate number of highly romantic attachments without much success in earlier years, I finally decided to formally marry/pair-up for more practical reasons. That association with my wife (who is admittedly a splendid and considerably apt domestic complement) has lasted more than 35 years and although it's never been easy, in the end it has been as good a marital union as anyone could rightfully hope for in this grossly imperfect and always challenging existence we call 'life.'
Of course, we both waited until we were in our mid-40s, having left the feckless urges of impetuously hormonal post-adolescence far behind, and also come from diametrically polar cultures (but that's another subject altogether).
Thanks, as usual, for another opportunity to view life through a glass with crystal clarity, Annie! Good on ya!
well said
Although now in my 70s, (and having first discovered JRRT in my early HS years), I've always felt 'romantic love' as a where-all, be-all 'guiding star' (nav vector?) is vastly overrated, and I would certainly agree that ALL human beings are, ad simplicissima verba, equally unfortunate co-partners in this chaotic plane of human experience called life. However (brave words!), I have found myself inextricably caught up in the tendrils of 'romantic love' regardless and in spite of my intellectual inclinations on this subject, throughout this same life I've led. Perhaps it is partly due to also being a life-long 'unbeliever' who views the human species as merely another biological life-form that is subject to the pairing/mating mandates of biological necessity?
Human beings have an unfortunately solipsistic view of the magnitude of their own importance, which when viewed on a truly cosmic scale is a farcical proposition of the most exponentially overstated nature. In actual, bare-bones truth, we're not much better than the myriad other 'lesser' ("lower") life-forms we share the planet with...the only real difference being that we are afflicted with this cursed ability to reason, to imagine and to fantasise! Such benighted creatures seem to have much need of 'guiding stars' (read: romantic love).
In my case, after having gone through a disproportionate number of highly romantic attachments without much success in earlier years, I finally decided to formally marry/pair-up for more practical reasons. That association with my wife (who is admittedly a splendid and considerably apt domestic complement) has lasted more than 35 years and although it's never been easy, in the end it has been as good a marital union as anyone could rightfully hope for in this grossly imperfect and always challenging existence we call 'life.'
Of course, we both waited until we were in our mid-40s, having left the feckless urges of impetuously hormonal post-adolescence far behind, and also come from diametrically polar cultures (but that's another subject altogether).
Thanks, as usual, for another opportunity to view life through a glass with crystal clarity, Annie! Good on ya!