Love

Dan and I watched a movie last weekend that we just loved! Dan in Real Life is the title. Fitting for our family, I think. But it's with Steve Carell. Has anyone seen it? It was very endearing. And we loved the screenplay, the dialog was great. I'm not a great movie review writer, I had to do it once in a college English class and I'm not sure how well I did, so I won't attempt to create a compelling summary to set the scene for this next quote, (it's kinda complicated) so I'll just tell you the quote. But at the end one of the characters says, "Love isn't a feeling, it's an ability."


I have mixed feelings about this quote. (I'm not at all critiquing the movie, because I loved it. This is just something I've thought a lot about.) To me, this says that one can make a conscious decision to love or not to love. That there may not be a "one and only soul mate," but that we can simply choose to be happily in love with whomever we choose. But then I wonder if that kind of philosophy takes the romance out of love.

In contrast, at the end "Dan" says, "You know that feeling in your heart? When your heart is just pounding, like it's actually outside your ribs. Exposed, venerable, but wonderful and awful, and heartsick, and alive, all at the same time?" That description to me describes more of a feeling than an ability to love.

If you really have the ability to chose who you love, can you feel this same emotion as described? But I don't know, I just wanted to get some honest feedback on your thoughts of love.