I am fascinated by love letters. They’re full of passion and longing and vulnerability. When it comes to this topic, I am still an adolescent drawn to drama and unrequited love. My own history has something to do with it. As a teenager, I received letters from a married teacher 20 years my senior (who I had a major crush on which of course escalated the drama) and as a college student I received long fervent letters from a spurned boyfriend. I saved these letters longer into my 18 year old marriage than I care to admit!
Writing is such sweet sorrow
My obsession has also been fueled by plays, movies and songs:
“Un ramito de violetas”- the song
Evangelina Sobredo Galanes was a Spanish songwriter who wrote this haunting song about a woman who, for years, receives anonymous flowers and poems from a man who turns out to be her husband. She never realizes that the man of her dreams is in fact the man she married. She is blind to his deep romantic nature, a nature she craves. He is unable to show his true self to his wife with whom he is desperately in love. The song ends in silent suffering.
Love Letters — the movie
The 1945 movie of this name was scripted by Ayn Rand. The New York Times panned it when it first appeared. Yet the story offers the drama I relish — a soldier in Italy writes love letters to a woman on behalf of his friend, and inevitably the soldier falls in love with the woman. The friend dies. Will the true lovers ever meet?
Love Letters — the play
The play, written in 1998 by A. R Guerney, captures the pathos of two people who love each other and spend a life time in letters figuring that out.
Put Your Love in Writing
My husband and I dated for 7 years. During our on-again off-again relationship, we both wrote our share of ache filled letters. And then we got married. Now we occasionally write cards with a heartfelt wish, but the drama is gone. We tend toward humor these days.
For me, love letters will always be for the forlorn.
How about you? Have your own fascination with these emotions on a page?
[Photo by lepiaf.geo]
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