People want to believe in true love, don’t they?
They want to go to Paris and kiss under the stars in the city of romance.
They want to go to Venice and hold their significant other, while a gondalier serenades them on the liquid streets of the Venetian lagoon.
They want to feel that connection at first sight, that chemistry during a conversation, and that feeling of being lost and found all at once.
What better way than to fall into the depths of forever, multiplied by infinity, and discover the reason you were born, than to travel to Verona… the city of love, the city that inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?
Ahh, the tale of tragic love.
For it is known that the tragedy of love is that it never truly ends.
Imagine, if you will, a kiss.
Not just any kiss.
Because, let’s be honest, after a time we fall into a routine of kisses that are akin to shaking hands.
Could it be because we no longer take a lady’s hand and greet her with a kiss on her fingers?
We forget what a kiss is meant to mean.
In ancient times, a kiss was believed to be an exchange of souls.
We kissed and we breathed in each other’s scent.
Have you ever felt that happen to you?
I tell you from experience that when you kiss with love, the scent of your lover will fill your lungs and linger within you to the point that to exhale literally takes your breath away.
How do you live without it?
Oooh, but to die with each breath is to live life to the fullest.
Afterall, there is no cause more noble than to die for love.
In fact, the greatest war to have ever been fought had not been for money, or power, or dominance. Though in the eyes of Agamemnon those motives gave him cause…but the true igniter of that flame that consumed one of the greatest cities of the ancient world was love.
The largest fleet that had ever sailed for war had crossed the Aegean when the Spartan king, Menelaus challenged Prince Paris Alexander for the hand of his bride, Helen of Sparta… later known as Helen of Troy.
Love.
Love is the only emotion that defines our lives.
The legend of the Trojan war defined the lives of those who fought in it. Be it for power, for glory, or for love… their names echo through the centuries because of it!
Achilles and his love for Briseis threatened to undermine Agamemnon’s goal.
Odysseus, King of Ithica almost never made it home, because the gods had been so angered by the outcome that his destiny lead him on a path towards death.
Yet, his cunning disposition eventually outwitted the gods, because he refused to let anything keep him from keeping his promise to his wife.
Love.
It’s the reason we write letters and poetry and songs.
Love.
It’s the reason we tell stories of “how we met.”
Love.
It’s the reason we believe we can conquer the world, and also feel empty when we’re without it.
Love is that feeling we get that reminds us that nothing else matters.
If we live for it, we live in the moment.
If we die for it, we live forever.
Felix Alexander Writer 