Rule #17

Listen to: Hero - Regina Spektor

This is not a love story.

There has to be a way to write, without the use of 'I', or 'me', or in a sense, without alluding to myself or anything personal to one who would insist on writing this.

Impersonality might be a saving grace, for all the good it will give this post.

There are no two choices to take - there is three. Or more. But not two, although the impression given is two. From a single perspective, it may look like two, but from the point of view of this writer, it looks like three. Or more.

Don't be a hero. But then how best to end this, if not to become one? A stupid one, at that, or maybe not. Maybe just one who wanted the best for everyone else.

Was there any need for questions?

Think of the stories, the tragic ones - The Sorrows of Young Werther comes to mind, for some perverse reason. Think of the sixteen-year-old reading this for the first time and thinking it was beautifully tragic. Romantic, so to speak. Now it just looks like death by stupidity, not love. It makes for good reading, but for practicality it works as much as hoping that sitting on eggs would hatch chicks. (Excuse the bad analogy, ahem.)

Think of Edward and Bella: stupid.

Think of Petrarch and Laura: probably stupid as well.

Did anyone ask what happened to Summer in 500 Days of Summer? Or did they just write her off as someone cold-hearted, who acted in her own interest without caring about Tom's? Did anyone ask why she did it? Could she have done it to protect herself, did they wonder? Or could she have done it to protect both of them, as she knew that Tom wasn't ready for a serious relationship, and that he needed to understand what he was doing with himself before she could be with him for certain? Not fate, that led to them meeting - coincidence.

Was anyone ever meant for each other, or do they just meet by chance?

Callousness might have prevented all this from happening, but putting it into action would be breaking Rule #17. And how easy would it be to break Rule #17, if it felt like losing something valuable?

No answers for this then. But that's all right.

This is a story about love.

You can kill me for the cliches now.