"We'll Always Have Paris..."

This request, plus some events in my life over Christmas, made me remember the movie Casablanca, a movie Laura Chartier introduced to me. (Thanks Laura!) A fictional example of where the guy doesn't get the girl.

I suppose this could be a good example of art imitating life. I'm sure most of us can name examples where the guy doesn't get the girl, or vice versa.

And I suppose those comforting words "You'll find somebody" were said sometime, by somebody during the process of picking up the pieces and putting them back together. Well, guess what?

It's a lie.

There is absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that you will find somebody in your life. Absolutely none. Nothing you can do can insure somebody is going to fall in love with you.

Don't get me wrong; I still believe in the idea of romantic love. But I'm trying to be realistic about it; the reason fairy tales are fairy tales is that they don't always come true. It's tough to realize, it's tough to deal with, but it's a fact. There is very little you can do that will increase the odds of somebody deciding to spend the rest of his/her life with you.

I wish this were an upbeat testimonial to "Hey, it worked for me, it'll work for you!", I really do. But does lying change the truth? Yes, we all know counter-examples, but isn't generalizing from success just as bad as generalizing from failure?

There's no guarantee that we will all find romantic love, just as nobody can prove that romatic love doesn't exist. You can't prove it doesn't exist, and you can't prove it does exist. Reality, once again, fills a nice grey void in the middle.

And that's the good news. Just because there's no guarantee doesn't mean it won't happen. Sure, life is unfair; but it's fairer than death. (Thank you William Goldman, and S. Morgenstern. Refer to The Princess Bride, the William Goldman adaptation, for details.)

You know, a part of me believes that everybody will find their Paris; that they will find somebody special to spend eternity with. And even if they don't, they have good memories, of a better time; and it's amazing on how that can fuel hope for the future.

But sometimes God has other plans, and we have to live with them. Sometimes we make decisions that will insure that we will never find Paris; we have to live with these decisions too.

And sometimes, we just get hit by pesky bad luck.

That's the hardest to live with.