The Hopeless Romantic: A Case Study

So this is the time of year where we all get a little bit lovestruck and try and reflect on how much we love each other. For many people this will involve an over the top display of affection backed up with purchases that will please the other but will mentally have them ticking boxes.

Others will fail miserably in this aspect of Valentines day and some won't bother at all. Whatever happens it all comes back to the great ideal of the Romantic. The doddering red-tongued iconoclast of poetry and wit who flatters to deceives and woos to the groove of an imaginary drum that sounds curiously like a heartbeat. Arrogant and impossible to achieve? You bet.

So the alternative is the so called 'Hopeless Romantic', the love lorn Morrisey type who yearns for something more and somehow 'feeeels' more then the average person because they are touched by some kind of intangible loneliness that somehow seperates them out and makes them special. Cop out? You bet. There is nothing more egotistical then calling yourself a hopeless romantic. I did myself once and now i realise i was a fool.

And the reason for this is that A romantic is someone who focuses entirely on love, nature and the universe in that order and not a tool for definition. Those who use the term hopeless romantic as a construct of their identity are even worse because they wear their forlorn sighing depression like a Cherub on Ketamin.

The romantic is not something that you can define yourself as but more something other people define you as. If someone can define you as a romantic without a hint of sniggering then you are one but you cannot call yourself one. I know this because i am not one and the reason for this is because to come out and be this dogmatic excludes anyone from being given that honour.

But at least i know my place in this world.

I'm Old Gregg.