What Happened to Romantic Love?

I have a bunch of articles lined up on, God forbid, the Positive!

Do I need to include some kind of disclaimer, or an apology?

Nah.

I’ve always been a romantic at heart. If I weren’t, I never would have come this far attacking the Bad Guys. If I were a full-blown cynic, I would have put my typewriter and keyboard away a long time ago.

I have no problem with Hope.

Of course, the realist in me has mentioned in print, several times, that the war for freedom will last at least 10,000 years. So there’s that.

But one of the items freedom is FOR is a culture in which pure romantic love can flourish.

So here we go.

You’re a boy. You’re 12 years old. In the spring of 1953, you’re walking along a road on a nice afternoon and suddenly you think about a girl you just met at school.

And: SHE’S THE ONE.

You KNOW that.

You’d build a mountain up into the sky if she would say, I LOVE YOU.

How did all this happen in the blink of an eye?

You don’t even wonder how.

That’s how far GONE you are. Or how far FOUND.

Yesterday, you were listening to a song on the radio. In 1953. It wasn’t I Wanna Hold Your Hand blah blah. It wasn’t metal or doo-wop. It wasn’t Get Rich or Die Tryin’. It was this:¹

The very thought of you makes my heart sing
Like an April breeze on the wings of spring
And you appear in all your splendor
My one and only love
The shadows fall and spread their mystic charms
In the hush of night while you're in my arms
I feel your lips, so warm and tender
My one and only love
The touch of your hand is like heaven
A heaven that I've never known
The blush on your cheek whenever I speak
Tells me that you are my own
You fill my eager heart with such desire
Every kiss you give sets my soul on fire
I give myself in sweet surrender
My one and only love
My one and only love

And the girl you just met is that girl.

You can see your future with her spreading out before you.

If only she will see it, too.

What you don’t know is this: It doesn’t matter whether a week from now, for whatever reason, you’ve forgotten all about her. Or whether she passed you by without notice or a word. It doesn’t matter at all.

The seed has been planted.

The idea of, and the desire for, romantic love will always be there with you.

You’ve just won that prize.

And the culture, in 1953, supports that seed and that idea and that desire and that prize.

Of course, you don’t think about that. You take it for granted. How could things be any other way?

You’re filled with hope.

Naturally, you are.

Now, as you’re walking along that road, the breeze blowing, the trees, the clouds take on new meaning. They support your desire. For her.

And how you FEEL—what better reason for being alive?

It’s the morning of your life.

And no matter what happens from now on, no matter what you do, that piece of morning will always be with you.

Again you think about the song you heard yesterday. Music and life fit together. You realize how beautiful that is.

You keep walking. You try to decide what you’re going to say to Her.

That is a perfectly reasonable thing to consider.

It always was. It always will be.²

Some enchanted evening
You may see a stranger,
You may see a stranger
Across a crowded room
And somehow you know,
You know even then
That somewhere you'll see her
Again and again.
Some enchanted evening
Someone may be laughin',
You may hear her laughin'
Across a crowded room
And night after night,
As strange as it seems
The sound of her laughter
Will sing in your dreams.
Who can explain it?
Who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons,
Wise men never try.
Some enchanted evening
When you find your true love,
When you feel her call you
Across a crowded room,
Then fly to her side,
And make her your own
Or all through your life you
May dream all alone.
Once you have found her,
Never let her go.
Once you have found her,
Never let her go!

-- Jon Rappoport

1. My One And Only Love (link)

2. Some Enchanted Evening (link)