We live in an age of media. There are so, so many books, songs, TV shows, and movies out there to consume. More often than not in romances, the two lovebirds end up together. What I'd love to see, though, for once, is a couple not get together. Or a couple gets together and then have their relationship fall apart and stay that way. Yes, I'm looking at you, Ross and Rachel.
Why would I wish for such sadness in our media? Because it's the reality of things sometimes.
Love and love alone are not enough to start or even sustain a relationship.
Almost everyone has known what it feels like when you have intense feelings for someone that the other just doesn't return.
So many people have found themselves falling for their friends just to have them "not feel that way back." This kind of thing has ruined friendships or at least made them a heck of a lot more complicated for a good while, and are bound to continue doing that for the rest of time.
Then, there are the even more painful predicaments, where two people love each other but outside circumstances keep them apart. Maybe they live hours upon hours away from each other. Maybe they aren't out nor ready to come out. Maybe their lives are just moving in two different directions. Regardless of what it is, there is something holding them back from that relationship despite that love that they both feel.
Then, there are the times when love isn't enough to save a relationship. Long-term relationships break up all the time. The divorce rate just keeps climbing. Couples that people deemed as "perfect for each other" don't always last, and everyone around them is so confused.
The truth is, relationships are hardly ever equal, and people change. One person trying to share enough love for both of them won't keep the boat afloat. There has to be a proper balance.
Love is something incredibly complex. I've had friends ask me how to know you're in love with someone because I'm an English major, I'm bound to know. But as soon as I do, I find myself stumbling over words and struggling to get out anything close to describe this feeling, this experience. There are a million ways to love and to show that love.
So, I once again find myself asking why all of our creative media essentially follows a handful of plots at most, perhaps with a twist here and there? Why aren't they doing so much more with love? Why are movies like Begin Again that go against the grain and keep the main couple apart after their love clearly fails, he cheats on her and tries so hard to come back, seen as such advances in film when they are portraying the reality of love that we so rarely see?
It's time we had a change. Artists, pick up your tool of choice and let's get to work.
