Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Love You Like a Love Song


Watching various friends and Facebook acquaintances pair off or upgrade their relationships, has gotten me thinking.

I knew a girl, Courtney, a couple of years ago who got a serious boyfriend. Whenever you got her or the boyfriend alone, they were cool individuals and you could get a sense of them as a person. But put them together and you couldn’t get to know either of them. They were so wrapped up in each other they stopped being individuals and became some super-couple.

I’ve watched friends fall crazy stupid in love. One friend, Carrie, did it with a guy we all barely tolerated. He wasn’t especially nice or likeable and we all knew she could have done better. She was so crazy about him we were afraid to be honest with how we felt until it was over. An old high school friend regularly gushes about how her perfect fiancee is just like Prince Charming. A lot.

Kelly Clarkson seems to have hopped on this bandwagon as well. One of the songs from her Christmas album is called subtitled Brandon’s Song and another is called 4 carats. In an award acceptance speech she talked about her wonderful fiancĂ©e and her last single is Tie It Up about them tying the knot. From the outside, she appears to be over the moon head over heels crazy stupid in love.

I lost my ability to adore the person I was with so completely you ignored major flaws after my college relationship ended. The relationship was deeply flawed but I didn’t want to see it for a long time. I forwent so many social activities for him that I didn’t have much waiting for when it all ended.

Since then I’ve had trouble understanding the women who make their relationship their center and their everything. I’m curious about women whose quest for love drives them because frankly, I don’t get it.

I’ve had more than my college relationship put a damper on my idea of happily ever after. As much as I adore The Boy, I don’t see myself ever being completely over the moon head over heels shout it from the rooftops can I get an amen crazy stupid in love. I’d like to understand that feeling and mentality better.

I know the root varies from woman to woman. Some women have marriage as a life goal to the point where the groom is a placeholder, not a complete person. Other women are desperate to be loved or hate being single and seek a relationship for validation. Some women just love with their whole selves and either lack the fear of rejection or won’t be ruled by it. Others subscribe to the soul mate theory.

I’m curious to find out about the psychology behind women in relationships and the social expectation. Where does the Prince Charming ideal come from and why are we so keen to hang on to it? How can someone be hopelessly in love while the other person is just fond of them? What is going on in the brain that lets love and obsession happen? Where is the line between love, infatuation, and obsession and how does it get crossed?

Music: Dark Side by Kelly Clarkson

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