Love & Happiness

By Myrna Lopez

VIRGINIA

Fairytales and Ever-Afters, Love and Happiness be with you “Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale.” Anonymous

Ahhh, love. It is the singular emotion that makes me spin out of control, makes me weak in the knees, and swoon. Romance is embedded in my DNA. I have conjured up the most saccharine scenarios about love and loving. I came by my credentials the old fashioned way – I contributed hundreds of pesos to the Mills and Boon’s coffers.

But even I am not willing to go so far as to accept romantic love alone would give us a fairytale life with our heartthrobs. I’m lucky. I have a partner who is willing to humor me and open the doors wide for my dreaming.

What happens inside the pages of life between once upon a time and the end?  Let me count the ways….

Crash and Burn.  The heat generated by that first look propelled the relationship into orbit. But intense heat soon exhausts itself. Passion can only go so far and once depleted the regrets and blame come fast and furious. Kim Bassinger and Alec Baldwin come to mind.

Sleepy and Hollow.  The relationship developed almost by itself, on auto-pilot. It limped along from the start and tedium actually provides a zone of comfort. Sexless, tepid, and apathetic. Brad and Jen?

Tropic of Discontent.  The relationship runs on ‘temporary’ juice until something better comes along. This is a category for the Users and Mercenaries. Most Hollywood marriages and temporary alliances fall here.

Disney’s World, a fairytale.  Once upon a time there was a knight in shining armor. He is also known by other names: Prince Charming, My Hero, Aaldega. He saved Aarmyn from the big bad wolf. They ran off to the Land of Make Believe. They had triplets they named Musketeer One, Two, and Three. The three boys went to medical school and became Supermen. They married Cinderella, Mona Lisa, and Sleeping Beauty. Aaldega and Aarmyn are now enjoying Middle Earth with their pure bred mutt Balou.

Get Real!   Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries. Enough said.

Once More With Feeling.  Love is lovelier the second time around for people who have loved, lost, lived, and learned to love again.

Hardly Ordinary People. Once upon a time binata (bachelor) and dalaga (blessedly single woman) met. Passion, love, and lust led them to the altar. Respect, deep understanding, and common goal glued their union and kept them together through the cyclical highs and lows, monotony, and restlessness that plague marriages after the first blush of romance has paled. Several crises and children later, they work at their flagging desire for one another and renew the spark. They’re lucky that way. Hurts and emotional detachments happen. They get over them. Several seasons later they celebrate a milestone, usually the quarter-century mark, and think – Hey, we’re still here! We’ll make it! Fast forward to the winter of their lives – they clutch at the straws of their waning time together. They promise eternal love to one another even after this finite journey is done. They lived happily ever after.