The Freedom of Romance
I read stories a lot and fiction is my favorite category. I am constantly in awe of how a writer is able to build a non-existent world, conjure it on paper and build a book to transport us there. It is akin to the seven wonders of the world, absolutely phenomenal. I think reality is already incredibly tough and chaotic enough that if I had to lose myself in a book it has to be another world that was close to perfection.
Another thing that is positively delicious in the realm of fiction is the romance genre. I live for romance books. I live,breathe and swim in a virtual pool of romance. If romance novels were air, it would make sense why I couldn’t live without oxygen because that would be my life saver. I love how a writer is able to bring two distinct humans with completely different personalities, who even hate each other sometimes, and build a relationship that culminates in love out of their dynamics. It is magical to experience on paper. Sometimes when I read a romance book, I wonder how the writer is able to create these realities. I wonder where their inspiration came from, was it their personal life, did they see it in a movie and decided to elaborate on it on paper, or is this all entirely a figment of their obviously wild imagination. These are real and important unanswered questions.
Asides the ecstatic feeling that comes with romance however, is the ability of a writer to make a beautiful situation out of two human beings. I think this tendency also extends to readers who favor romance genre. There is this innate ability to see beauty in the world. I see flowers and I see beauty, I observe a father and son and I am able to see the raw beauty in their interaction through my romance colored glasses. Granted there is the tendency to be flighty and presumptuous in certain situations because of our own romantic bias, however, as with everything in life, balance is key.
As a realist who also happens to be a romantic (yes, we exist), I am able to enjoy life’s beauty and see romance in even the littlest actions, while also being able to identify bullshit. I think because I have immersed myself in romance books so much, I am able to sense when an action is authentic and when it’s just fluff. I am able to pick up on cues and mannerisms that are contradictory.
My point is, romance has given me freedom. Freedom to accept love in multiple forms, in its simplest forms and in both the smallest & grandest of ways. I am able to give freely of myself and love people freely because I have an abundance mindset about love- it exists all around me. It is immensely freeing to not have to tight my affections to my chest all the time. You might wonder; has this behavior not led me to breakfast tables? The simple answer is yes, multiple times infact. However, I focus on my experiences. If I loved wholly in that moment and I truly felt loved then I hold that closer than the heartbreak that has been dished out.
I am pushing for a romance bill to be passed, in an alternate universe of course because the odds of it happening here are ridiculously slim to none. I want more people to join me on this bandwagon of freedom. The call to live a life of romance is not a call to be fanciful and live in your head all the time. Rather, it is a call to life freely, to love freely, to experience life wholly in all its entirety. To love is to be free.
