"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)
Love is only possible where people can be vulnerable with one another and trust that the other will be protective of the exposed areas. Or is it?
Adaptation is one of my favourite film partly because I've had a thing for Nick Cage since seeing Wild at Heart and Moonstruck, but more importantly because of this one exchange between two twin brothers (or within one person as some suggest):
Charlie: There was this time in high school. I was watching you out the library window. You were talking to Sarah Marsh.
Donald: Oh, God. I was so in love with her.
Charlie: I know. And you were flirting with her. And she was really sweet to you.
Donald: I remember that.
Charlie: Then, when you walked away, she started making fun of you with Kim Canetti. It was like they were making fun of me. You didn't know at all. You seemed so happy.
Donald: I knew. I heard them.
Charlie: How come you looked so happy?
Donald: I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn't have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.
Charlie: She thought you were pathetic.
Donald: That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago.
Charlie: Thank you.
I'm not even entirely sure how to interpret that, but on a gut level, it offers a hopefulness that it's not so hard to love without expectations. But is it really possible to take pleasure from love for one who loathes us in return?
Love is only possible where people can be vulnerable with one another and trust that the other will be protective of the exposed areas. Or is it?
Adaptation is one of my favourite film partly because I've had a thing for Nick Cage since seeing Wild at Heart and Moonstruck, but more importantly because of this one exchange between two twin brothers (or within one person as some suggest):
Charlie: There was this time in high school. I was watching you out the library window. You were talking to Sarah Marsh.
Donald: Oh, God. I was so in love with her.
Charlie: I know. And you were flirting with her. And she was really sweet to you.
Donald: I remember that.
Charlie: Then, when you walked away, she started making fun of you with Kim Canetti. It was like they were making fun of me. You didn't know at all. You seemed so happy.
Donald: I knew. I heard them.
Charlie: How come you looked so happy?
Donald: I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn't have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.
Charlie: She thought you were pathetic.
Donald: That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago.
Charlie: Thank you.
I'm not even entirely sure how to interpret that, but on a gut level, it offers a hopefulness that it's not so hard to love without expectations. But is it really possible to take pleasure from love for one who loathes us in return?
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