Precious Romances

It has been said that 'sober' people don't care about romance. Indeed, some of the most serious authors who have written books upon books, have never used the words "romance" or "romantic." Still, they wrote about love, even with the word Love capitalized. Should fiction writers, therefore, or for that matter fiction readers, shun romance novels?

I would say that this shunning should be avoided, lest we shun love. What can there be wrong with the worlds of love and roses? In exploring love we explore an element that makes humanity special. The danger with romantic fiction is that its writers become tempted to portray love as something exceptional, rather than as a fundamental quality that defines us as human beings.

Humanity and Love, are one. What sets us apart from other species is the appreciation of beauty that makes us human, the creation of great art and music in which beauty is found. And so, love is the greatest. 

It has been said a long time ago that love has its root in the joy of being touched by the beauty of another. Thus, love is rooted in our humanity. Here a world unfolds that sometimes supersedes what is called the rational world, but can anyone tell which is the most real? Often love unfolds in times of great trials when a person tends to be more honest with itself about reality. And when the world turns dark and all the artificial lights of civilization go out in a holocaust, the light of love will remain and grow ever brighter. But why shouldn't it be a light above the sun even now?