All You Need is Love

Falling in love repeatedly is a condition which plagues the rich and carefree.

What an arresting thought I first came about in a passage by Oscar Wilde.

"You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love. A grande passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do."

To think of romance, dating and affairs of the heart as a luxury afforded primarily to the first world. Please do not believe that I am so misguided as to think that the poor, the "have nots", and people of developing nations do not love or fall in love. I'm quite sure they do. Rather I wonder, is it the topic that occupies the majority of their thoughts and conversations? Is the extortion of it one of the most visible elements of their society and culture? With basic human rights in limbo from day to day, would an individual even want all the drama and energy and complications that make up our average Western love story? Our "grandes passions" as Wilde puts it.

Is it selfish to fall in love? I don't think so. Is it sinful to make mistakes and fall in and out of love multiple times? Perhaps not. Is it ignorant to view romantic love as a necessity? Maybe. To be able to daydream about love, to pursue love interests at our leisure, to be able to expend so much of our time and energy on the subject ~ that is our privilege, and perhaps our mistake.