I have always been the type to think before I speak...
I suggest you listen to that. It's really good =). Seriously. Instant love right there.
In fact...listen to it as I blog. I'm that anxious to share it with you.
...
So. I don't remember the last time I blogged...I think I was still in school, but I'm not entirely sure...in any case, for posterity, my life in 2 seconds [[or however long it takes a person to read a list...]]
-I'm out of school.
-I STILL don't have my grade for espanol.
-My cousins are the awesomest EVER.
-I've been in a relationship for 2 years.
--Yes, he's still going to Seattle.
--Yes, we're still going to try and stick it out. [[that's what she said.]]
-My sister's switching to a closer school. She'll be a Mission Hills Grizzly Sundevil.
-I saw the condensed LOTR Prince Caspian, and it was amazing.
-I made a new friend! His name is Nick, and if you don't know him, I'm sorry.
-I'm going to babysit my cousin's kids tomorrow for 2 hours, and I don't think I could be any more excited.
Anyway...on to what that song inspired...
Love is a funny thing. Every day, I realize that the closer a person gets to knowing completely what love is, something happens, and we find that love isn't what we thought it was. Everyone has this idealized version of what "true love" is supposed to be like, and when it's not like that, sometimes it's just easier to say it's not meant to be and be friends or take a break or whatever.
I know being in a relationship for just 2 years gives me no amount of expertise whatsoever, and most of the relationships I have to observe are slightly dysfunctional at best...but maybe that's just it--slightly dysfunctional is the norm. Either that, or there is no norm...which would make sense as well.
The way I see it, love is just as unpredictable, just as fluid as we are. We change everyday, both in small subtle ways and in big ways, and as such, the way we love changes with us. And I'm not talking about just romantic love--I mean any love. Love for family. Love for friends. Love for the postman who couldn't fit your American Apparel package in the big mailbox, so he left it on your doorstep, thereby making it so that you didn't have to go all the way to the post office to pick it up.
Ok...maybe not that last one, but I think I've made that point anyway. That idealized view of love we obtain from fairy tales and Disney movies...as perfect as a relationship might be, that idealized dream doesn't exist. Prince Charmings don't just ride up on white horses, and whisk you off into the sunset to live happily ever after; beautiful princesses aren't waiting in ivory towers to be saved from wicked stepmothers or fiery dragons. It's a beautiful dream, and it's a great read...but people need to understand that the story doesn't end with "happily ever after." Happily ever after is a choice, and one that differs from person to person and relationship to relationship.
There is no one definition for what love is, or what it can do, because there's no one definition that can encompass a global population. Sure you can say that love is "deep affection for another person"...but you can also say that people are a collection of animals, either put on this earth through Divine Creation or Evolution. Neither definition truly goes in depth enough to draw out the complexity of either subject; anyone who's experienced any level or kind of love at all will know that there's more to love than "affection" just like there's more to each individual than the physical characteristics of which they're composed.
We feel in different ways. We have different experiences. We have different capacities to love. This difference, though small it might be when comparing people, is infinitely more than enough to say that one person has absolutely no right to judge the way another person loves. Our lives, though intricately intertwined, are separate enough that we should be able to determine for ourselves who and how we love, and no one--not our parents, not our friends, and certainly not our government or society--should have the right to take that choice away from us.
What good is being "free" if we're not free to love whom and how we wish? Almost anyone you ask will probably see love as something essential to happiness...and isn't it a huge part of one of America's founding documents that we're born with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
This actually isn't what I originally thought of when I heard that song...but I think that just suits my argument anyway...so I'll keep it =). Maybe it'll do someone some good to read it?