Love is NOT My Religion

I've realized something this weekend- love is like a religion to some people. When I attack love and its institutions, I am attacking people's beliefs and in essence, their faith. It's funny that only now, two months into writing this blog, am I beginning to realize this.

I suppose I can liken it to the whole Santa Claus/Easter Bunny thing. Now, now, before you send me hate emails about "likening the existence of love to the existence of fantastical characters", humor me for a moment. Also, please refrain from commenting that I've excluded entire denominations by homing in on these two characters. In case you haven't noticed, I do not concern myself with being politically correct...

Now, I want you to visualize Christmas morning when you were a little kid. You would wake up with a start, equally excited to see the presents left for you as you were to see whether or not Santa valued your cookie choices. There was a certain magic to that morning - someone took the time to break in to your home and bring you gifts. The same can be said for the Easter Bunny. A GIANT bunny left me my basket filled with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?! What could be better than that?!

Fast forward 20 years...Christmas is still a holiday I look forward to, but the magic is gone. There is no sleigh landing on my roof, no Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and no one is relishing the fact that I took it upon myself to include not one, but THREE types of cookies in my Christmas Eve offering. It just isn't as much fun.

For the record, I am not crediting my blog with having the same effect on my readers as the realization that every child goes through when they find out that Santa Claus isn't real. However, I feel that when people read that there is someone out there who doesn't necessarily believe in all the true love mumbo jumbo, they are deeply offended...it gets even worse when these people are also in relationships. It's as if you're attacking their choices, their beliefs, and their faith. For the record, I have been in love, and the cynicism toward said emotion is only one facet of my personality. Love is not the be-all and end-all and it does not conquer all. Do I adhere to my cynical streak so strongly that I am willing to die alone so I can prove my point? No. Will I hold on to this cynical view until a concrete event(s) occur(s) to make me believe otherwise? YES.

Just to clarify - this blog is not meant as a personal attack on you, or your relationship. If you are part of a couple, because I am fully aware that an outsider can never know what goes on on the inside, I make no judgments about the outcome of your relationship. All I am saying is this: I have yet to meet someone who disproves my theory about the futility of romantic relationships. Furthermore, I have yet to meet a couple who makes me believe that all of the effort/heartache/stress is worth it...Go ahead hopeless romantics. Attack at will.