{"id":1574,"date":"2010-05-31T11:57:23","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T16:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1574"},"modified":"2010-05-31T11:57:23","modified_gmt":"2010-05-31T16:57:23","slug":"love-not-quite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1574","title":{"rendered":"LOVE, not quite"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s an interesting article<\/a> in the June Atlantic Magazine by Caitlin Flanagan about the current state of teenage girl-dom. The article is titled “Love, Actually” (a twist on the 2003 British romantic comedy movie<\/a>); Ms. Flanagan reports that teen girls are currently staging a social revolt of sorts, rejecting the notion that they should celebrate a culture of promiscuity (wherein girls usually don’t get as good as they give to the boys in their lives, in terms of basic human regard and respect; and in terms of physical pleasure, most likely), and go back to holding out for real love. <\/p>\n

Ms. Flanagan cites a variety of signs, including the lyrics of the latest teen pop idol, Taylor Swift. I took a quick look at some of Ms. Swift’s lyrics<\/a>, and yes, they do seem to envision something more than “love the one you’re with” (ah, the old Crosby Stills and Nash anthem of the late 60s). One quick example from Ms. Swift: <\/p>\n

“Sometimes I wonder \/ How it’s gonna feel \/ Will my first love be true and real?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(from Am I Ready for Love<\/strong>). OK, if this is what the teenybopper girls are listening to these days, perhaps that is a good sign. However naive the sentiment is (like a 17 year girl is going to find “true and real love” with a 17 year old boy; yea, right), it at least sets high standards and expectations; maybe even VALUES (ah, the conservative side of me is coming out here).<\/p>\n

But the question remains: just what is LOVE? What is the difference between LOVE and TRUE LOVE? Well, that’s something that you might consider in a philosophy class, so that’s how I’m going to treat it here. Does a relationship between two people ever have “Ontological Significance”? Can it? I.e., does a human relationship ever have a “being of its own”, a unique identity that goes beyond the circumstances and environment that brought it about? Or in the end, is what we call “LOVE” just a function of the circumstances; thus, to be cast to the winds by a few twists of fait, as it so often is (i.e., “star-crossed love”). <\/p>\n

We can think of long-term relationships between men and women (or even more broadly, not just to encompass homosexuality but also to consider family bonds and friendships) that did last “until death do us part”. But were those just a function of favorable circumstances? Could they too have been burst apart by a few more stressful moments?<\/p>\n

Interesting question. Given my age, that makes me think of some lines from that 1970 song by The Moments, “Love on a Two Way Street”<\/a> (a song that the teenyboppers might have listened to back when I was their age). I.e., “true love will never die \/ so I’ve been told \/ but now I must cry \/ It is finally goodbye, I know”. Ah, some doubt, some questioning as to whether there even is such a thing as “true love”!! Give my generation credit for its humility as to being able to know what true love is.<\/p>\n

What do I think about all this? Well, perhaps there is some TRUE LOVE out there in the world, i.e. some love that is anchored in the most fundamental themes of creation; something anchored in “God”, if you want to look at it that way (and on most days, I do). Or in the “Mother of God”, as my friend Mary might say . . . But such love is a lot rarer than people think. Those who THINK that they are in LOVE probably are just going thru a mixture of youth, hormones and circumstances (as with Taylor Swift’s optimism that there is at least a chance of finding “true and real” love during one’s first romantic encounter in life). <\/p>\n

Those who really are involved in TRUE LOVE probably don’t think about it much. And they are probably a good bit older. They may not even know who Taylor Swift is! (Hey, I only found out about her just a few weeks ago; fortunately, just a few days before I was talking with this college kid who told me something about a Taylor Swift concert, and at least I was able to say “so where was she playing?” — darn those androgynous baby names!<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Well, not that I am involved in any TRUE LOVE at this point in my life. Maybe I’m not ready for it yet. True and real love, undying love, would take a LOT of willingness to sacrifice on the part of another, to go way beyond the idea of “what’s in it for me?” I don’t think that most teenagers can appreciate that; perhaps most human beings of whatever age cannot. <\/p>\n

But still, I agree with Caitlin Flanagan that something good may be happening with teen girls these days. It’s good that the Taylor Swift generation is at least asking questions again about TRUE AND REAL LOVE. It is a step, a first step but at least a step in the right direction, on the long, long road to wisdom in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s an interesting article in the June Atlantic Magazine by Caitlin Flanagan about the current state of teenage girl-dom. The article is titled “Love, Actually” (a twist on the 2003 British romantic comedy movie); Ms. Flanagan reports that teen girls are currently staging a social revolt of sorts, rejecting the notion that they should celebrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1574"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1576,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions\/1576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}