For as long as I can remember Ive had a soft spot for love and melancholy. Those two things are intimately interrelated. Love and sadness exist in the same space. Theres a reason the film writer Cameron Crow uses the term, Happy, Sad to describe those moments that move us, that we become engorged with emotion. Those moments where we cant really tell if were happy or sad. In Lovers Discourse its said, The first thing we love is a scene, which is seen for the first time. Curtain parts and what has never been seen is devoured by the eyes. Its distinct, abrupt, framed, it is already a memory. This is the line that gets me. This idea that when we are struck by love it is already a memory. The moment is happening and you are already mourning the fact that the moment will end. This intertwining of melancholy, of loss, that is literally embedded in the experience of rapture is sort of whats so unique and mesmerizing about love but also what makes it so tragic. Theres a reason love is said to be the romantic solution to the problem of death. That our lovers act as stand ins in a staged managed resurrection where the pilgrim without faith can die and live again. These death and rebirth simulations to finally turn our lovers into Gods and Goddesses, to be saved by them. Its every pop song, its every romantic movie youve seen. You know the feeling. It moves us to tears. But who cares. Life should be lived to the point of tears. So fall in love. Or die trying.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:14:06 +0000