Double Dose

I liked the sound of things that were ripe before my existence. Perhaps it is true that the nostalgia for another life beyond your own memory and cognizance, the longing for a feeling of cultural belonging to something you never belonged to, is the true prerequisite for being a romantic.

I have noticed that calling someone romantic in contemporary writings or conversations has evolved into a negative label, that somehow over the last decade or so, the term is equated with being a sap, suffering from an unalterable level of naiveness, and having a magnetic need for optimism that may not even be intrinsic in the romantic themselves. Where did the negative connotation come from? I have no idea. Nor do I care. What I do care about is the fact that it is indicative of the hollowing of a generation of 20 somethings and 30 somethings.

The generation that I belong to is no different than any other generation--when we say that times were better 'back in the day' or that we likely remember things better than when they were. However, our 'back in the day' is pretty much anything before 9/11 and I think I can safely say that we remember accurately that times were, in fact, better before.

I consider myself a romantic. And to be a romantic, you have to be a believer. Perhaps romanticism is frowned upon because in these last ten years, we don't have much to look forward to, to believe in. We live in a world of philandering celebrities and civilians (perhaps who have always existed but are now exposed), of frequent shooting sprees, and the rise of global terrorism. Sure, you can say bad things about any generation--but in truth, there are a lot of bad things out there today. And yes, while that is a blanket statement and I could make a laundry list just as long about all the great things in the world, just turn on the news once in awhile. If you can find one show that isn't flooded with negative news for at least 85% of the broadcast, then I'll remove this post. But you can't. Because the world is too cynical for its own good.

But maybe cynicism isn't the kryptonite for romanticism. Maybe it is the reason the romantics exist. They want to prove the world wrong--that love can transcend all evil, that great lesson can come from tragedy, that profound statements of humanity can come from pain. Perhaps the two go hand in hand and maybe I'm just a part of a generation, who instead of pretending that one SHOULD exist without the other, has accepted that both schools of thought thrive on the need to prove the OTHER one wrong.

Perhaps.