wrinkle embrace

I love the pairing of a good melody with moving lyrics. Add on a unique, soulful voice and it's game over for me. Hence my love for Brandi Carlile. The Story is truly one of my favorite songs as it touches on something so important in all of our lives. "True love."

In high school, one of my English teachers tried to teach us the concept of "true love." In vain, he dissected Pride and Predjudice, The Princess Bride, Romeo & Juliet, the works of Wordsworth and Shelley to try to show us the beauty and the importance of love. Of "true love." Yet at the time I was cynical to it all. Romance is something to be left in the pages of literature, to be discarded as you leave the theater and forgotten once the DVD ends (or VHS at the time).

Recently, however, I've been realizing the innate need we all have for "love." The nooks and crannies in our beings that are never quite filled in spite of a generally gratifying and happy life. I go about my business fully content and amused by the everyday occurrences of living -- the uninhibited laughter of students, the late bloom of a solitary rose, the quaint and encouraging text messages from friends. The possibilities for my future are unbridled, undetermined and unknown. This is exciting, no doubt. I realize that I can take a class in Greece for a month. I can travel to Burma during the winter. I can take off on my bike for a week, traversing the Korean countryside. The possibilities are endless. The opportunities are plenty.

Despite this independence and abandon of a stable life, or perhaps because of that, the romantic in me will never die. The chance, the hope, the desire to experience the literature, the movie, the song lies in me, as I believe it does in all of us.

I've no doubt, that like the rest of the population, at the end of my journey, I will have a story to tell. It's a matter of who will I tell it to.


p.s. if you have time, look for brandi's acoustic version of this song on youtube. uh.may.zing.