True love is a myth. It pains me to say it because all those times I’ve lain in bed staring at the ceiling and dreamed about it are for nothing. I wish I could say the opposite. I wish we lived in a world where such fairy tales had a chance at being reality, but this is the real world.
Love exists, sure. It’s an emotional state just like all the others we possess as humans. But how is true love different? It’s a form of romantic affection that is considered to be pure and wholly positive, not just based on lesser things such as lust, or an attraction. Can something be pure and wholly positive?
I think not. All the best things in my life have come with their own challenges and places of darkness. For something to be wholly positive devalues it by comparison; those things that one must work for are inherently more valuable because of the work put in. Perhaps less rare, sure, but something that is just pure, good, and wholesome? I have trouble believing such a thing can exist.
Just look out your window, to whatever sits beyond that thin pane of glass that separates you and yours from the world. There is nothing that exists that isn’t complicated in some way. And for those things that seem simple, straight cut, and easy? There’s always another perspective on it that flips it all on its head.
Perspective is key, as with all things in life. For you, something might be simple. But for another, it could be the hardest thing they accomplish in their life. This is not a problem, this is not unfair, this is life--part of being alive is living your own experience and no one else’s.
But for those who believe in true love: I envy you, in a way. You’re able to look out your window and observe the world for what it is and still believe in a fairy tale. You’ve cherished something that I lost to cynicism long ago. And for that, your life will have a spark of magic that mine will lack. You will have something extraordinary waiting for you just around the corner, whereas all I have to look forward to is just another emotional state based on romantic affection.
Or the other side of the coin: synthetic love. Where you feel lonely in a fast paced world and have to manufacture the emotion to fill a void in your heart; you have to manufacture love to feel whole. And at the end of the day, it’s still only as real as your perception allows.
I envy you believers, in a way, but at the same time: I live my own experience just as you live yours. There is no good to be had in wanting for something that may never have been in the cards anyway, and I’m okay with that.
Styles Yugen, signing off.
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