cupid’s bent arrow

There came a time when I became very interested in reading the newspapers,  I read the front page, the sports section and the entertainment section, entirely.  I broke the habit though, unfortunate as it is, because I grew tired of it since everything seems to just repeat and repeat.  However, yesterday, I happened to just scan around the newspaper when I stumbled upon an interesting article in the PDI.  The article is about this Modern Day Romance that commenced because of the photography site, Flickr.

Who defines a Modern Day Romance?  What makes it different than before? Is it because women are no longer actually damsels in distress?  Modern Day because it diverts from the traditional way of Romance: the courting, the chivalrous, and the class?  Maybe that is so, but I do believe, if given the same idea of choice, the old type of romance and the  modern day romance would still probably elicit the same feeling of love from its participants.

Back to the article, I was actually very touched by it.  Two people who have similar interest in photography and thousands of miles away from each other (the lady is from Britain while the man is from the US), fell in love with each others photography at the exact same time.  It is so serendipitous.  The lady was just being shown a photography made by the man and fell in love with how it was made that she immediately wanted to send a message to the man.  At the same moment, the man just happened to stumble upon the lady’s account and decided to comment on her work.  Ever since then they have been in touch with one another, soon falling in love.  He visited her on her home town where their love for one another was confirmed and strengthen.  But reality sets in eventually and he has to continue on living his life.

They wanted to maintain the relationship, a classic case of a long distance relationship.  This situation leads me to wonder, is it really possible to fall in love with someone you just met in the internet?  Scary, isn’t it?  You don’t really know the person, what if all that he/she has been feeding you are based on lies?  The abovementioned couple still took the risk and ended up actually happy and honest with each other, which leads me to another question, is it possible to maintain a long distance relationship?  Would everything about it just remain ephemeral because both of you know that it is difficult to actually feel like part of someone’s life when that someone is not really, physically, present in yours.  Sure there is this old saying, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” But, should we actually believe all proverbs?

My idealistic side is prevailing, continuously saying that everything is possible when one puts one’s heart on it.  That would have been my answer.  However, my realistic side (which is slowly creeping its way in my system, mind you), says that fantasies are just that, stories of the mind that can happen, but would not really flourish.