There was a comic strip my family enjoyed reading called Buckles. The main character was a dog named Buckles whose owners were a young married couple. There was one specific strip (I have a copy of it somewhere) that drew a lot of attention. In the first box of the strip, the young couple kissed, and the next four boxes were of Buckles doing melodramatic poses of choking or gagging until he drops down and pretends to play dead. In the final box, the wife turns to Buckles and says, "It was only a kiss." Buckles replies, "That was enough." Someone in my family took a copy (the one I still have) and taped it on my bedroom door, because I had the reputation in the family as being the one who didn't like the kissing parts in movies. The reality is that I don't mind kissing. I always felt like the representations in entertainment (particularly movies and television shows) draw people more toward sensation rather than genuineness. That turns me off. It can create a depth of emotions and feelings that are tender and need to be respected and treated with care. I'm not a fan of playing with people's emotions when it involves something as tender as this.
I am a secret romantic at heart. I love the happy endings, seeing the girl get her man, and seeing everyone happy, but my idea of romance is slightly different. I knew it was a little different when I watched my peers and adult women sit there and drool over some man's manly physical appearance or listen to the disgustingly sappy words that would never be said in real life by a man (unless he's up to something). No. Not for me. I consider physical attraction, touch, and intimacy perhaps an element of romance, but it isn't romance as a whole. Real tried and true romance to me goes much deeper, and, in my opinion, a most vital element to have in order to maintain relationships. We all know that the physical aspect of romance dulls or changes over time, and if a relationship is based solely off of it, then when a couple reaches that level of transition, there's nothing left to hold on to and no foundation to stand on.
So what do I find romantic? For me, romance is not just an act or moment. It's a process or a progression. There's certainly the journey between the two individuals while they discover their feelings for each other, but that's only a start. It's the developing of a friendship into a lifelong equal partnership. It's watching couple learn to support each other through the trials of life. I always like to use the first few minutes of the movie, "UP," as a primary example of something I find romantic. The two meet as children, grow up as best friends, marry, go through various difficulties and trials together, and remaining together until death separates them. It's a beautiful example, and I honestly find it romantic to see elderly couples who have been through so much together still holding hands or kissing. They've suffered, quarreled, and made memories together, and have learned to love each other individually. Isn't that really what we all want ultimately?
That's my two cents for whatever it's worth.
