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Monday, September 10, 2012

fabula

Every good story is a love story.

Now, I know this sounds gross, because love stories are so cliché and revolting, not to mention cliché...  But it's true.

And if you're someone who knows me personally, you may be wondering what kind of blog link I gave you, because this is certainly not me writing...But it is.

Here, allow me to tell you a loveless story.  It will be brief, in the interest of saving virtual paper.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was bored with her life.  She didn't have a blog to fill her time, so she decided to embark on a journey and see what life had to offer.  She traveled across the country until she came to the sea.  There was nobody she wanted to say goodbye to, and nobody she was hoping to meet.  But she sailed away in a small boat, slightly curious about what she might encounter in her journeys.
The girl was indifferent toward the ocean, so the sight of land one day was neither a relief nor a pain.  She quickly found her way ashore and set out to explore her new location.  There were some interesting things there, but nothing too noteworthy, and nobody to write to about the curious discoveries she was making, so these discoveries are rather inconsequential.

Okay, that got really difficult really quickly.  Which is why there is no ending.  And really no middle...and not much of a beginning either.  The whole story sucks.  See, the story would be a lot better if there was some sort of love going on.  Naturally what comes to mind is that the girl either leaves a wonderful boy behind, or finds a new dark and handsome lad in the new land, or both.  And yes, even that would make the story much less dry of a read.

But any other kind of love would be welcome as well.

See, stories require love in order to connect with us.  Whether it's a love of a land (as in Far from Home...I'll just refer to that since we should all be familiar with it...), of a people, a culture, a sport, a mathematic principle, a small hedgehog....it all makes the story valuable.  Sure, people usually get involved as well, but that doesn't mean that there is only one kind of love story.

Now, I'm sure that some of you little devil's advocates are wondering "What about hate stories?  Those are passionate and emotionally involving just like love stories, but they are indeed loveless."  And to you, I say that you use the term "hate" just as loosely as people use the term "love".

"I love bacon" is not the same kind of love as "I love my dog".  While both are clearly desirable....actually, I'm pretty sure that bacon love is pretty deep stuff...

Take two:
"I love reading 'The Far Side' comics" is not the same kind of love as "I love my dog".  Obviously, most of us have a much deeper attachment to dogs than to comics, and this is largely because of the many good experiences we've had with our dogs that outweigh the good experiences we've had with Gary Larson.

Unless your dog is named Gary Larson.

Similarly, "I hate Justin Bieber" doesn't carry the same weight as "I hate celery", because I haven't had many experiences with Justin Bieber (thankfully), but I have had countless miserable experiences with celery.  Awful, stringy stuff...

True hate has to be rooted in the same place that sincere love is rooted.  You can only truly hate that which you have truly loved.  And you can only truly love something if you give it the power to break your heart.

See, my heart's been broken by soccer before.  And math, yes.  And by each of my closest friends.  (They take turns, but some of them take more than their fair share of turns...)  And by Marcus Mumford.
But not so much by bacon.  Or Boston Baked Beans.  Or the city of Boston.  Or even zebras.

Each person's love story is a little bit different.  I could tell you how I spent summers dedicated to soccer, and never made the team, and yes, it's a love story.  That's why it's worth telling.  If I had spent my summers training for the wrestling team and then didn't make the cut, that wouldn't have been a good story because it's completely passionless.

So, as we all go around making stories to tell, just remember that where you invest your love, you invest your life.

1 comment:

  1. Alright, I officially LOVE this. Made me laugh and smile. :) I miss you and your quirkiness dear. And I have no math in my life currently besides the subtracting I'm constantly doing to my bank account balance, so I'm rather depressed without you, and this helped that a litte. So, thanks!

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