2006-01-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

What exactly is true love? Depends on who you're talking to. I think women and men have the same feelings, but they sure express them differently. For instance, let's look at a couple that I consider expert in the fine art of true love: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. [The following is adapted from Louis Untermeyer's foreward to Love Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning; poems within the book; a PBS website, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/browning.html; and primarily, my own brain. :)]

Here's what Elizabeth said:
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."

Hubby Robert said this about that:
"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be." [And all this time, you thought it was John Lennon who said that, didn't you? LOL!]

I use the Brownings here as an example of a famous couple who I believe experienced TRUE LOVE. Whether you know it or not, the Brownings' love story is one of the strangest ever told, full of mystery and adventure.

Elizabeth's path was turned when she was only 15 years old, after injuring her spine in an equestrian accident. A few years later, she lost her beloved brother by drowning. Her father was known as a jealous and possessive man, cruel to the point of being almost tyrranical in his paternal duties towards his children. However, Elizabeth's love for her father never diminished as she grew into a woman and became a well-known author. In fact, the year before she met Robert, Elizabeth Barrett wrote a straightforward tribute to her father which was published in a collection of her poems. By the time she was 39 years old, a persistent cough confined Elizabeth to bed in London, and that is when and where 33-year-old Robert stormed impetuously into her life.

Okay, listen up, 'cuz here comes the good part! I just LOVE this part! It reads just like an online love affair, 1800's style!!! Really! Ready? Here we go...

Robert was already in love with Elizabeth, even before he saw her!

WOWOW!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, did he have an epiphany, or what? Well, okay, I don't know if epiphany is the right word here. Let's see, an epiphany is when you have a deep realization about yourself, but you figure out the truth in a rather ordinary way; you know, no bells and whistles, just a single lightbulb kind of moment. Well, I don't know if Robert really had an epiphany, but doesn't this situation sound very similar to what we have right here on the Internet today? We might consider that connection an epiphany, for lack of a better word. You must know someone, or have heard at least one story about someone meeting someone on the Internet, dating online, meeting offline, getting married and living happily ever after. How? How can that happen? How can you fall in love without ever meeting in real life?

Well, it's not really rocket science, people. Just look at the Brownings. He fell in love with her as he knew her in her written words. Robert had never met Elizabeth, and she only knew him through his writing. He was thrilled when Elizabeth Barrett praised some of his lines in a poem, so he began corresponding with her, via the postal service. He himself was a rising author, and he continued writing to her. The letters began to fly back and forth as he confessed his love. She wrote back in same, although inwardly, she felt unworthy because she was bedridden at the time.

[Sound familiar? It is quite similar to circumstantial meetings that occur on the Internet every day.]

Remember I said that Father Barrett was cruel and tyrranical? Well, that did not stop the young whippersnapper, Robert Browning, from barging his way right past the formidable figure. It made Robert crazy because Elizabeth was a tiny person, as well as frail, and he did not like that her father was so bullying. Robert knew that jealous old Dad would do anything to keep Elizabeth away, and indeed, he planned to move the entire family to the country, where he knew Robert would not have ready access. Okay, so Robert knew he had to move fast. [Isn't this just the greatest story ever?! Wait until you see what happens now!]

Robert loved Elizabeth more than anything and anyone else in his life, and he was willing to move far away from all he knew in order to make her his wife. He knew it meant he would have to care for her physical needs all by himself. He finally convinced tiny Elizabeth to slip away and marry him secretly. They crossed the channel to Florence, Italy, where they set up a brand new life that included her maid, Wilson, and pet dog, Flush. And guess what! In Italy, in what many would consider a miraculous occurence, Mrs. Browning made a full recovery! On their wedding day, Elizabeth looked frail and pale. Just a few months later, she looked almost robust. And the biggest miracle of all [remember, this is the 1800's--HEALTHY people rarely lived past 60] , at 43 years of age, Elizabeth Barrett Browning gave birth to a son. Husband and wife had been luxuriating in an idyllic life, to which their son was a welcome addition.

Now, isn't that much better than "They lived happily ever after"? Well, that is, of course, until somebody dies. I mean, let's face it, one or the other has to die first. And I'm sure you can guess which of the Brownings met the Lord first. Elizabeth died in Robert's arms in 1861. This perfect couple had only 15 years together, but I know those 15 awesome years were better than a lifetime for others. How do I know? Because I'm there now, DOING that. I am living an idyllic life with my true love, my soulmate, my RamblinMan, whom I met right here online.

But that, my friends, is a story for another day.

Laugh a little, learn a lot, live long!
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"When I get a little money I buy books;
and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
-- Desiderius Erasmus
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