The Pursuit of Love

I found this that I'd written a few months ago. I think I might have posted it before, and then deleted it. Anyway, I thought I'd share it again, especially in the light of another friend's wedding tomorrow.


"What I don't understand is that in novels and films, it all seems so easy...

So, I'm currently reading a novel by Nancy Mitford. It's really quite good - I like her style, and she makes me smile wryly every now and again, which is nice. What I don't get, however, is the fact that although her protagonists are in "The Pursuit of Love", she only dedicates about a paragraph to the "two years of agony" between 16 and 18, which is from the age her characters become preoccupied with falling in love, to the age they are 'out' and allowed to get engaged.

How can the 'pursuit of love' be condensed into so brief a paragraph...?

Oh and every now and then she slips in things like an "oh, by this point I (the narrator) had met so-and-so and now we're married", and a nonchalant "oh yeah, this sister of mine has now got 2 children"... like it's of no consequence at all.

Isn't it supposed to be life changing? Isn't it supposed to make an impact?

It's like when I talk to people who have been married for ages, and it's so matter-of-fact and understated, that I get confused.

I feel like my whole life has been building up to The Event. And you know how when someone promises you something, and says "it's on its way, promise!", and you get excited about it, but then it keeps not coming, despite reassurances of "it's still on its way!", and it gets harder and harder to be excited about it...?

I just don't really know what to do differently.

I mean, I want it to make an impact, I want it to be worth waiting for, and I also suppose I don't really want to miss out. But if all that's asking too much, I might even rather nothing than a lukewarm non-life-changing "oh, and then we got married" type thing.


I sometimes feel like there's a secret code that you need to understand before you're even allowed close to contemplating The Event.

It's like a club I've not been invited into.




In other news, I just ate an entire tube of Maltesers. Yum!



"We walk by faith, not by sight"
2 Corinthians 5:7"



(I found it - it was originally posted on January 19th. The day after my 25th birthday.)