Love or Something Like It

My July copy of InStyle magazine is very worn, doesn’t help that it was pretty small this month which unfortunately happens in the summer between seasons.  However, like a Phoenix it will be reborn in September when the fall fashions splash across the pages promising to whisk us away from the oppressive heat to the land of cozy sweaters and knee high boots.

What caught me today was the ad for Cartier.  Visually, it was a very simple ad.  Just a rose gold bracelet with a few diamonds and the engraved brand name that probably is only overshadowed by the blue boxes of Tiffany & Co.  On the black background in red lettering it read “how far would you go for love.”  For some the answer is pretty simple, and even if you don’t want to think about it some people go to hell and back for it every day. 

Love makes you feel things that are only reserved for God’s.  It makes you do things that you should think better of.  It inspires men to sculpt, to write poetry, to look at the stars and wonder what is beyond the blackness.  It also has its own barbs , some of which are laced with such anguish that we as humans wonder what it is all for.

Today has me wondering.  It also has me looking at an empty left hand.  Yes, I have been married before, and what I’m wrestling with now is am I just not suited for the kind of thing that made so many mortals fill museums and people give Hallmark cards?  It’s like being slapped in the face repeatedly by what should be the simplest of endeavors, one man plus one woman equaling eternal bliss. 

I write about relationships.  I write about human emotion.  I write about love and heartache and demons, because let’s face it we deal with all of these things in one form or another.   Most Americans are exposed to 3,000 advertising images a day.  Worldwide, companies spend over 600 billion dollars a year to come up with and deliver those images.  They play on our emotions.  They play on our wants and our needs.  Sometimes they even play on our fears.  So for Cartier to ask me how far would I go for love? All I can do is contemplate the response.

Would I sit in Purgatory waiting?  Yes I would, over and over again. Because sometimes no matter how bad the hurt, it’s all worth it.  In the end it hasn’t changed that I am a romantic, hasn’t changed that I believe in knights in shining armor.  Even if the armor isn’t stamped by Cartier.