Why Romance?
“Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze.”
—Carolyn Gold Heilbrun
Yup. That’s it. The above quote lays out, with words, the melty, rubbery-knee, butterflies-in-your-stomach sensations that accompany the basic stages of romance: the firsts, the in-betweens, and the lasts. This week’s blog will touch on my most memorable and emotionally unstable stage: The Firsts.
The Firsts
First visual connections, first flirty interactions, first dates, first hand-holds, first kisses. This is the stage when couples strut around in a beautifully awkward mating dance, puffing their feathers, putting on an outer show of supposed wit, charm, and status. This is the often the season of careless emotion and selfish desire, the chase outweighing the actual catch. But let me tell you: nothing used to ZING! like a walk across campus, where an attractive young man, moving in my direction, would catch me off guard with his I’m– checking– you– out stare. To hold his gaze until passing was…sigh. Actually, that never happened to me. I was more of a double-take sort of girl—too shy to keep eye contact. But my best friend loved that game, and the thought of it still makes me giddy.
Though a time of trying on different sizes or sampling the menu, a time of trial and error, an emotional rollercoaster plummeting into tears and speeding upward into total elation, the fallen and settled dust of mundane living is brought to life and scattered through the sudden and abrupt motion romance inspires, the motes floating and swirling in sunlight. Mornings are met with joy;, steps are lighter, dispositions friendlier, motivation increases, and slumber meets the conscious remembrances of soft– spoken words, intimate glances, or the squishy gloss or velvet of another’s lips.
Why write about romance? Because the firsts are events that should be celebrated and shared. I am (usually) so excited to hear about my son’s or daughters’ first date or first kiss experiences. They come home or FaceTime (the college kids), practically levitating, the smiles on their faces showcasing the golden haze in which they have wrapped themselves. Two days later might be a different story, but the cycle goes on, and one day, one of those romantic firsts will turn into something more splendid, carrying love into the stage of the in-betweens.
Stay tuned!