''I'd rather live in his world, than live without him in mine.'' - Gladys Knight and the Pips

Now that is sacrifice. When someone can love another so much that they would give up their dreams, their lifestyle, what they know, all to be with the person they can't live without. Gladys Knight sang about that kind of love, and sold this belief to millions. After all, isn't that what people search for? What people like me attempt to write about? My question, however, is that if that person was so worthy of love they would never make you change or give up things that mean so much to you. The things that give you your identity. Over the last few months my sense of identity has got stronger, through not having to compromise any aspect of me to please another. I know more about me now than I ever have done, and I know the world I want to live in. I want someone to share my world and love it as I love it. Of course in a relationship you compromise, but it should be practical things that are compromised, not your character. The person who is right for you would never make you be anything other than what you are, and they will love you all the more for being that person. Sharing your world with someone worthy is a goal, but sharing it with someone who already lives there without compromising THEMSELVES is the ideal. Can it be found? This perfect match? I like to think so. Never settle for something less than amazing. Preachy rant over.

Alan

"You can't be wise and in love at the same time" - Bob Dylan

It's true. You can't. The very notion of being wise negates all we have ever learned about how love makes you feel. There is a cynicism that comes with it. A mindset that drags 'movie-love' kicking and screaming into the real world and stamps a big 'Doesn't Happen' mark on it. That is not to say that all realists are wise, but the aspects of love that make people want to love in the first place do not go hand in hand with the realist view. It is an ideal that people yearn for. Why be wise about love anyway? Does that not take the fun out of it? The whirlwind of emotions that we are promised comes with love: would it not be better to just fly with it, rather than step back and rationalise and question and worry about and a hundred million things that could nullify that feeling? Of course the realist's argument is always strong - you hear more stories about the failure of a relationship. The failure of said relationship gets questioned, answers are given, and a summation is summised. This conclusion adds ammunition to the realists' argument arsenal, and is embodied in one word: experience. Experience makes people wise. So how can a wise person be in love? Truly in love? Well I like to think that a wise person would be wise enough to know that no one has 'experience' in what lies ahead. We are all hurtling towards futures which will no doubt shape our views on the world, in the same way that our pasts have shaped who we are now. I say to those who are wise, next week you could fall madly, deeply in love - your world could be turned upside down and back again, and for all your 'experience' you will not know what hit you. And you will be converted. And you may never be wise again.

Alan

"To those who can dream, there is no such place as far away"

So. Here I am. Finally letting the idealistic things that swirl around in my head out into the world for people to read. I've been told I think too much - let's see.

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