The Little Things

I found this a couple of days ago from a friend's facebook: http://k0ks3nw4i.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-boxing-day-girl.html. Do take a look. If you don't, you'll never know the context.

The post was written in 2008. Before I begin, I want to state categorically that this isn't a grudge 3 years in the making. I sincerely hope that the author is still with the girl of his dreams, and that he has found meaning within his meaning.

At the same time, having read his post I felt a vague sense of disquiet. So here are my thoughts.

There is a conflict that runs through the narrative. A tension between the other things other people do, and the 'things I do', and the 'things that I do' are always well thought out and infinitely better. But isn't that the case here as well, you ask. Are you not reversing the roles of hero and villian, conqueror and the vanguished? Ah bravo. It seems then that you've caught me in a moment of delicious irony.

In our stories we write about suffering, about pain and the human condition. Our best stories are not written by the mentally sound or the fundamentally happy. Our best stories are born out of conflict, a father's belt, a broken picture frame, a silent scream.

And in the absence of an enemy, we create one. He writes about the frivolity of other couples putting numbers to their game of love. There. In the shadows he has inked the beginnings of an eldritch horror, eyes smoldering like coals, the gaping maw of death, the devourer of worlds.

But I exaggerate. Some monsters are made from nightmares, others made from straw.

In the intro, he writes that he has stopped believing in high notions of love like 'till death do us part', or a 'one true love'. In closing, he tells us that love should be in the moment, in the 'yearning, the desire and the hope for forever'. You've had some time, have you looked up irony on wikipedia yet?

As it is infinitely easier to find fault than to offer a solution, let me make this more interesting by offering some of my own thoughts to the altar of criticism.

I think defining the parameters of a relationship is something personal to every couple. Simply because your relationship goes against a norm does not necessarily make it better or worse. Now the question is, did he propose that his relationship was better? I don't know, did you get that feeling when you read it?

I think it takes both courage and effort to go against the norm. But it may be the case that here, much effort and little courage is required. What if others don't go against the grain of expectation because it is easier not to sweat the small stuff. What if, God forbid, they actually enjoy counting days. What if their love was defined by the days just as yours is by the moment. Is it wrong? Do you pay for the whole night's experience, or just by the hour?

I think love is blind. Take what you will, and give nothing back.

p.s. For those interested in knowing the context behind the context, I must be a lonely, cynical man without a love in my life. You actually might be right.