A love story need not necessarily be lovely.?
Nor must it necessarily end well.? In fact, the definitive quality
of the deepest love stories ever written is that they do NOT end well.?
Romeo and Juliet could have ended no other way than in the death of both
lovers.? Comparatively, Romeo and Juliet had it easy.? They
were separated by familial feuds and driven to suicide because of a
stupid mistake, but they died loving one another, and knowing that that
love was returned.? In their own way, they received their reward,
and thus neither Romeo nor Juliet could be counted as true lovers.?
The true lovers of the world are the Eric’s, the Quasimodo’s, the
Pips, the Eponines and the Cerino’s who gave all for a love that would
never be returned.?? They received no reward for their
actions, but sacrificed themselves nonetheless.? This is further
proof that love cannot overcome all obstacles.

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Indeed, time and history shows how painful every love story MUST be.?
Young lovers become old and disillusioned with one another.? A
flame of passion springs up, and then dies down only to find another
object for the affection.? Let us take, for example, the most
successful scenario we can envision.? A young couple falls deeply
in love.? They marry with the blessings of both families.?
They have a family, and their love becomes deeper and more comfortable
over the years until they are, truly, a part of one another.? At
some point, these two will be separated by death.? Solomon tells us
that love is as strong as death, and perhaps if it were a mere fraction
stronger, this would not be such a devastating story.? Yet we see
that this story is as tragic, if not more so, than all the rest, even as
it is the most any of us could hope for.

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But I wish to speak to you of two other love stories which appear to be
wholly different, and yet they are the same.? The first is the
story of Narcissus, who, ‘pon seeing his reflection in a trickling
stream fell deeply and happily in love with himself.? The second is
the story of Pygmalion, wherein an artist spends his life chiseling
tenderly away at a stone and in the end falls deeply and tragically, in
love with the image of the woman he has carved into the cold, dead rock.?
In both of these, the man comes to love some element of himself.?
There was nothing worthy of love within the rock itself, but rather it
was the artist’s projection of himself, his talents, and his hidden
longings into one, tangible image that captured his heart.?
Likewise, it was merely his appearance, that skin-deep and shallow
facade which lacks any deeper quality that so enchanted Narcissus.?
The gods are wise, it seems, in meeting out their rewards.? For
Narcissus becomes a flower growing by the river bank where he can
eternally gaze upon himself in unmasked affection, while Venus brings
the sculptor’s creation to life so that he can live out his days in the
company of the woman of his creation.? These stories, fantastic as
they seem, are more believable to me than the story of Cerino.? I
have seen countless men fall in love with their reflections and with
their own creations, but I know of very few who sacrificed everything
for someone they know will never love them.

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