Date Posted:17:57:17 06/10/09 Wed Author:Alex Wood Subject: Re: Love is. It just is. In reply to:
Shelly
's message, "Love is. It just is." on 19:11:29 06/09/09 Tue
"Tori was lost. Was Paulie delirious?" is a neat take on the title.
But I'm afraid I can't agree that Paulie loved unconditionally. She was too needy to let Tori be her own person. Paulie is a wonderful, fascinating, intense character, but I can't see her as a role model of love.
Alex Wood
>
>How can Tori justify leaving Paulie, who loves her
>unconditionally, to please her parents who will only
>love her if she is who they want her to be? Love holds
>no restrictions. Love is, and can only be,
>unconditional. There is no other way to love.
>
>Tori's parents no doubt sacrificed for her: their
>money, their time, their ears, their careers,
>themselves. How can so little love come from so much
>sacrifice?
>
>Paulie's love for Tori was exact, acute, and natural.
>She loved her with every thing she had to offer. And
>Tori's love was everything to Paulie. So, when Paulie
>lost that love, what else was there to live for?
>
>What else is there to live for, if not love?
>
>What is it about Paulie that she broke?
>What was it that broke Paulie?
>Was she not strong enough?
>Was the pain too much to hold up?
>Did the love for Tori run so purely inside her that to
>strip her of that reciprocated love, was to shred her
>of her veins? (How did Paulie-- who was loved so
>little-- learn to love so acutely?)
>Maybe it was just the flare of the film industry that
>sent her to her grave.
>
>In high school, my teacher told my class about a
>student-boy, pumped with too much testosterone, and
>too little serotonin. He had lost his girlfriend and
>was going to take a jump from the top of the school.
>As far as he knew, there was nothing left to live for,
>if not love. And my teacher said he was a fool,
>pathetic to think that love was worth such absolute
>devotion.
>
>Is Paulie a fool, pathetic to sacrifice everything--
>her dignity, her life, her pride-- for real love? This
>sympathy I feel for Paulie, is it just the emotion
>drawn out of me by the wiles of Hollywood? Or can I,
>in my own small way, relate to the pain that Paulie
>feels?
>
>Another question:
>Is it right, is it fair, to compare this part of my
>life, my love, with Paulie's?
>
>Was I stronger than Paulie?
>Was the pain not so harrowing for me?
>Did I not love her as deeply as Paulie loved Tori? If
>not, do I know love?
>Was I simply not so rejected as Paulie?
>
>I'm a different person than who I was then. What would
>I do now if she were to abandon me?
>
>I pray to whatever God is listening that it isn't
>destiny, it isn't required, for she and I to end like
>Paulie and Tori. What I would give up for her!
