The Paroles Of JK

Did you ever fall in love with someone at first sight? How shallow. How awful. Slap yourself on the hand and consider yourself chastised; we are such a wonderful series of beings that to fall in love merely with the features of a person is as awful as falling in love with a statue. In fact, you may as well fall in love with a statue, for all that your love will be returned - unless you, too, are statuesque and handsome. In that case I wish you both the best of luck and I am sure you will have beautiful babies.

But for the rest of us - those unfortunate few who are not godlike in their proportions nor statuesque in out musculature - we have to fall in love slowly. Or do we?

I submit myself, humble writer, no Adonis nor Pitt (Brad, rather than the Elder or Younger) as subject and proof that we humble peasantry can fall in love with a sudden startling stop. However, lacking as we do the chiseled jawline or plunging cleavage that are so useful in procuring the eyes of the opposite sex, we are reduced to falling in love at first laugh.

I say reduced, because up to this point I have been affecting the guise of a humble man, a little ashamed of his looks. But it is a ruse, dear reader, because I consider myself - and those like me - raised high above the shallow people of Handsomeville. To fall in love with looks is so poor a love that it is almost to be disregarded; without depth of feeling there can be no emotion greater than lust and no more than a passing infatuation.

If your love is already beautiful, and you seek only beauty, then they are already perfect. How can they change? How can your relationship develop in the slightest when you see your partner as already perfect; when there is no greater pinnacle to reach? What then? Stale love. Unchanging love. Love that does not grow; does not wax, or wane. All things fade and grow and fade again; there is no beast or plant that grows unchanging. 

So then to us. To the great majority who have a nose with a kink, or a blemish on our face, or arms that cannot lift great weights - I say we are richer for our flaws and for the love we both give and receive for it is the love born of acceptance of flaws and recognition that true beauty resides deeper in the body than the skin.

I return again to my first point: we fall in love at first laugh. When you look with loving eyes upon another, the laugh is what will turn it. Laughter - a smile, even - signifies deep joy, and that joy will tell you in a heartbeat if you love that person. If your lover laughs with you, at you, and you feel that smile reach inside you and unlock a laugh or a smile in return, then be confident that you are in the presence of Love.

We are fleeting and transient creatures. Your love will, like the moon, grow small and then grow large. If ever it is small, and you are wondering if it is still there, see once more their smile. If the memory of the smile brings a returning smile to your lips, then be assured that your love exists still; even the smallest flame can be encouraged once more to a roaring blaze.

If it does not bring a smile to your face, then gird your loins and pray she doesn’t get the house.