LEARNING ABOUT LOVE: WHEN TO STAY, WHEN TO GO

I watched the movie Summertime, with my aunt recently. Besides being filmed in Venice, what struck was Katherine Hepburn’s character. As a single woman traveling in Europe, clearly she was running away from something as much as she was running towards something else. The obsession with filming everything, to the point when Hepburn falls into the canal, made me think she was stubbornly trying to capture moments, codifying this very sentiment.

Sure enough a type of romance builds for Hepburn but it is far from storybook or… is it?

The Struggle, Strife and Triumph of Falling in Love.

There is a scene in this movie that perfectly sums up the philosophy of love: Hepburn says to her love interest (played by the gorgeous Rossani Brazzi) that she has, “often stayed at parties too long because I didn’t know when to go. Now with you I have grown up and I think I do know when to.”

This telling line illustrates the self-control we often leave How, we can throw ourselves into romance, and disregard any logic. Love is in its essence a paradox. It is the prize. Romance and lust are the foreplay. We can soak our heart and souls, in the “essence of love” and all that glitters, even if we know it will be fleeting or even emotionally dangerous. Its strength and pull can shape the trajectory of a narrative that drives itself. At some point though, the adult in us, succeeds. We finally know when its time to leave. An exit that is rarely pain-free but surely memorable.

Chasing Love with 20/20 Vision.

I haven’t been in love that many times in my life. Yet, I am a hopeless romantic. I get swept up in the trappings. My loves all smelled, tasted and felt so different each time. The difference wasn’t them but rather me. How I responded to such power and understanding its longevity, which let’s face it, sometimes, like Katherine Hepburn, I stayed too long at the party.

If I stayed too long at the party, its only because it was fun. That’s something, right?