You Ask Me If I Love You...

Is true love an illusion? Are we being formatted by TV shows to believe in something that doesn't exist in the way that they portray it?

love lwbho 20578

I've been in love. Once. It certainly wasn't anything like they show love on TV. Oh, there were the butterflies, there was that intense feeling in the pit of my stomach that almost made me feel sick when I thought about him or saw him.... there was the longing, the desperation, the joy. But mostly, for us? It was the wrong time, wrong place, and our non-relationship has never really been the same since.

And reading what I just wrote, I guess I can see the similarities between real life and the world of TV. But in other ways... I don't know.

I know without a doubt that I was in love with him. But I never once felt like I would die without him, that if he wasn't there I wouldn't be me. And that's what 'true love' on TV is portrayed as. The undying love, the unending, soul mate, forever kind of love.

Is it real? Am I missing out on something? Or are we all just being duped into believing in something, in WAITING for something that never really existed to begin with. And it's not just TV. It's in songs too. 'I wanna hold you til I die', 'And I, will always love you', 'I really need you tonight, forever's going to start tonight', 'If only for today, I am unafraid, take my breath away', 'I'll be there when the world stops turning'....

We're surrounded by couples in love. On TV, in our history books (both fiction and non-fiction), in our magazines.... is it everything it's cracked up to be?

Antony and Cleopatra? Let's start out with the fact that he cheated on his wife with Cleopatra, and then move onto the part where after his first wife dies, he goes and marries another woman... NOT Cleopatra. Oh yeah, and then there’s a war, she deserts his side, and fights against him, makes him think she's dead, he tries to kill himself, dies in her arms, and then she kills herself. Brings a whole new meaning to 'a little death' doesn't it?

Romeo and Juliet? Oh sure, we treat them as if they are the be all and end all of lovers... but hey, they were young. For all we know, it was puppy love. Then she thought he was dead, and killed herself, and he found her dead and killed himself for real...um, yeah. THAT worked out well.

Tristan and Isolde - She's promised to the King. He murdered her last fiancé.... Well, it was doomed from the start wasn't it? Then he dies... and well, we all know where it goes from here don't we? She dies.

Though, I may have just contradicted my point....'I wanna hold you til I die...' They all died in their lovers arms. That's the definition of 'til death do we part'.

My point is this: Is this true, undying, till death do we part love real? Do people really fall in love to this degree? Let me know, because I have yet to find out.