The Bedside Blogger #8

My Really Weird Day


Today has been really weird for me. I don't usually have the feeling of need for physical contact but for some reason I wanted a hug, not just any kind of hug though, a real caring hug. Couldn't explain the urge at all. Also, at one point I had an intense feeling to cry, but was not sad and a moment later I was just as happy as could be. Weird, right?


Anyway, something I was thinking about earlier was the difference between relationships about 35 to 60 years ago and relationships now is distance. The internet and wide spread social media has broadened the relationship horizon. In a sociology class I took in college we discussed the bases of relationships and aside from similarities in personality one huge reason for any relationship is proximity. If you look at your best friends think back to how you met them, you more than likely met in school, work or social setting that had a fairly close proximity to your home. 


There is a story I heard from someone at work that just melts my heart and gives me a little hope whenever I think about it and I wanted to share it, I have changed the names so that I don't violate HIPPA.


About 65 years ago Donna was 16, living on her own in Chicago. Going to school and working part time. Donna was downtown shopping on a fresh spring day and on this particular day there was a bunch of sailors home on leave for the weekend. As she walked down the street she notices a group of them across the street from the dime store, one in particular was staring. She didn't think much of it and walked into the store, a minute later John walked in and started to wonder about the store. John watched her from afar while she shopped, which wasn't very long, right before she left the store he approached her and confessed that she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen and couldn't leave Chicago without knowing her name. She of course was flattered and gave the young sailor her name along with her address for him to write to her while he was gone for 2 years. 


They wrote to each other everyday and saw each other only a handful of times while he was in the military. They built a real relationship through paper and ink.


I don't believe it was love at first sight of course, but Nicholas Sparks couldn't write a better love story if he was drunk off of love potion #9. They lived a wonderful life together for over 60 years. Having 4 beautiful children, one they adopted from China. They were always happy and smiling, till about a year ago when John couldn't fight his cancer anymore. He had been sick for a very long time. Donna still weeps for him, and that, my friends, is real love.


As beautiful and romantic as this story is I can't help but think what would happen if the same thing would happen in this day and age. A guy fallowing you into a store and watching you while you shop, then stopping you just to ask for your name sounds like stalking to me and I would surely call the cops. Also, if you did somehow see past the stalker like tendencies would you really want to write to someone for two years without knowing them? Along with the fact that people now a days aren't as genuine or as patient. Who could really wait for someone for two years? I know that I couldn't, we are a generation of instant satisfaction. We have apps and short cuts for everything! There is so much temptation in the world today also that promising someone that for two years you will not look at any other person is just a flat out lie.


I don't think all romance is dead, I see romance fairly often and would be tickled if someone wanted to be romantic with me, I just think that romance is very different now and it kind of makes me sad to see the difference. Our world is so crazy and mixed up, we have to be more aware if someone is going to rape us after a first date rather than if that person is going to call us with in two days. But I suppose that is how the world works, I'm sure that in about 65 years someone will look back on to someones love story and think it is old fashioned to meet someone from college or work to settle down with.


Just a weird thing that was going through my head today that I thought I would share.