Love: random thoughts

I don't know of anyone who doesn't want to love AND to be loved back. I guess that mostly sums it. What are the odds? You have to find a candidate (for lack of a better word), then you have to like that person, then you have to know that person well enough to know the Good Things and the Bad Things and then, after all this rigermorale, if you still haven't given up, maybe you find that you care so much about that person that you don't care about the bad things. If that was all, the world would be a lovely place (pun unintended). But where would be the fun if it was that easy? So the exact same process must successfully complete at the other side as well for a working love story. What are the f***king odds?

One would think that in this age and time, it must be pretty damn hard to have all these quirky requirements work out exactly as they should for this, "love", to happen. Cliched as it may be, the lining up of celestial bodies is a pretty good analogy; almost as rare as an eclipse (though that has the curious connotation of one being overshadowed by other). Considering the chances, one would think that the machine of romance writers, hallmark channel, slick rom coms, love-you-forever music and mushy-pink-heart cards, is a co-ordinated effort to get us to go on this wild goose chase.

However, if we look around, this thing doesn't actually seem so rare. It's signs are scattered all over nice places like college cafeteria (or Starbucks nowadays), sunny beaches, riverside walks and even in places not so nice. So how is it that something so elusive is actually so commonplace? Or is it that, all those hand-in-hand cases are not the "real thing" but merely varying degress of affection/infatuation/liking etc. etc.? Who is to say? To answer that, one would have to know/ask "what is love" and thats like going towards a crossroad with thousand ways - each a dead end.

If we assume that the abundance of signs actually point to the real thing, this must be rarest and commonest of all things - simultaneously. You see your friends, family, acquaintances and even strangers in love but for some reason when you go around looking for it, it manages to evade you forever. People spend their whole lives; their eyes searching for someone who they can love and to be loved back.

Does it take a special kind of person to be in love? How come some people are "more" in love than others? Does it require some talent - maybe she's born with it? Or maybe its just that some people look harder and are more persistent in their search. Who knows.

Speaking of contradictions. The search for love makes people do amazing things - make sacrifices for their loved ones without hoping for returns, suffer incredible pain, makes people strive to make themselves better and inspired to do great things. The same search also makes them desparate enough to order Russian mail order brides, disappointed & angry enough to spray hot metal shards in a room full of unsuspecting women, deceptive enough to cheat friends and do unmentionables - they go down the depths of filthiest human behaviour.

If someone asks me, I'll say its just a collection of contradictions. The only thing for certain is that everyone wants it (including those who have been bruised by it), some people are lucky enough to have it, those who have it sometimes don't know it, sometimes they don't care about it. And rest of us? Well, we'll probably expire looking for/at it.