Lust is easy. Love is hard. Like is most important.~Carl Reiner
As a writer I've never really written about "relationship love" because it's not something I've never actually experienced. Of course there's that little boy you stare at when you're in kindergarten, and freak him out when you say, "We're going to get married!" Then there's that cute guy in math class you tap on the shoulder for a pencil, when you know fully well there's a whole box of them in your backpack. And then as you get older, there are more complications.
There are people of both genders who play mind games and manipulate. There are people who are simply out to have a fun date or whatever and never call again. And there are people who are so focused on everything else they don't bother to look up and see someone is standing in front of them, waiting.
Being a girl, and an introverted one at that, my list of imaginary relationships is longer than my list of real ones. Girls are different because after talking to a boy once they imagine a long date watching the sunset, running through the fields, sleeping under the stars, etc. etc. etc. The next time she sees him, butterflies flutter throughout her stomach until it threatens to burst. The next time he sees her, he thinks, "she looks kind of familiar, I wonder if I know her . . . "
But there are real relationships. And sometimes I kind of prefer the imaginary, ideal ones. The real ones don't have kisses in the rain or the sunset all too often. The kisses of real relationships are usually in the hallway at school, or in the movie theater. Ideal relationships have never-ending happiness. But Real relationships usually have an end at some point.
In an Ideal relationship, your first kiss is on top of a flowery hill, and your hair is flowing, and a smile is on your lips. Most people I know remember their first kiss as being a foreign, awkward experience, and I can guess that their hair was in a messy bun and they were wearing old, ripped jeans.
The reason I brought this topic up is, even though I think relationships and kissing and imaginary relationships should be private matters, because one of my best friends is having a pretty good time in a very comfortable relationship. Maybe I'm jealous, or maybe I'm being reminded that I'm lonely. No, at the time I don't have anyone "special" in my life.
But I keep my day alive with those occasional Ideal relationships, where the prince sweeps me off my feet and we fly out of that magical castle on a dragon. I'm a writer. My imagination flows like a river. The problem with a river is that it empties eventually.
And yet at some point that dragon has to hit the ground. That prince has to dump you for the scullery maid or remind you how meaningless it was to him. So you proudly punch him in the face and carry yourself proudly. Because at some point, you find someone who blurs between ideal and real, and you can't tell which was better: the fantasy or the reality.
