The Things We Do For Love
I had the entire situation set up: camera, lights, backdrop. It was perfect. With those tools, and the 1,254 piece Lego Millennium Falcon my little sister had received for Christmas, I would create the most epic, wonderful, nerdy time-lapse known to man.
After all, what is more suited to a time-lapse than a spaceship that is designed to fly at light speed?
We broke after the first hour for dinner. Upon returning to the project, my sister announced, “I’ve decided to finish it when I go back to school.”
I was aghast. Her proposal would mean transporting all 1,254 pieces on an airplane halfway across the country. And then, once there, building it and somehow transporting it home again without dismantaling or breaking it.
(And, what about my time-lapse?!)
I calmly asked why. She replied that a boy wanted to make it with her. But not just any boy. Oh no. My strong-willed sister would not wait to build her prize with just any boy. It was, in fact, a boy she liked.
Obviously, there was no moving her from the decision. There ends the story of my time-lapse and begins my realization of the lengths people will go to in order to encounter, capture, and keep love.
This is not the first time I’ve found a person I know to be a logical, objective, and of stable mind throwing regard to the wind in the name of affection. I’ve watched everything from switching class schedules to switching universities, foregoing a favorite concert because she wanted to stay home, and even renouncing core beliefs in order to fit as “the other half”.
Don’t pretend you’re exempt. Surely you’ve gone out of your way hoping you’d cross paths with her or listened to that band so you could bring up their music the next time you saw him. Things that are inconvenient are suddenly relished as a means to get closer to that cherished soul, a holy pursuit even.
Those around you finds it utterly hilarious because they have short term memory loss from the last time they had a dose of such a feeling. I believe Disney labels it “twitterpated” in the 1942 classic movie Bambi. Somehow, that person becomes the justification for every irrational act and silly stunt.
Why does this happen? And is it worth the trouble/humiliation/sacrificing my time-lapse?
There are three key elements that contribute to this condition…
Humans are imperfect (You don’t even have to go outside to realize that one).
Humans need love (This void is created in our very souls. Why do you think we always sing about love/can’t make a movie without it? It is a funadmental need — right there with food. There are studies on people who were not given proper affection. The results aren’t pretty).
Humans are innovative (A little over 100 years ago, we didn’t have air travel-unless you count a carrier pigeon. Now look at us.)
Those three facts are the reasons why we will do anything for love. We recognize our need, form a plan to fulfill that need, and then often do something silly to mess it up because we are imperfect, can’t see the future, and are limited in perspective to our own experience.
So here we are running headlong into the same wall over and over again; 98% of the time, we fall down with a nasty headache.
Is it worth it? Is packing up 1,254 pieces, shipping them through the air to a different state to spend a few hours with a person you don’t even know will accept you and choose to be with you for more than those few hours (if even those) worth all of the inconvenience and possible failure?
Yes.
A thousand times, yes.
Because if you’ve found someone worth looking absolutely ridiculous for, or who makes you not care that all your friends are teasing you, or who will sit and build a giant spaceship out of Legos when you’re far past the age suggestion . . . do not give up on them for a second.
They may not stay. This may be one of those times you end up on the ground with a headache staring up at the wall wondering how you got there.
But you know what? One day it won’t be. One day it will work. And you can spend the rest of your lives being silly together and not caring. Just loving-and loving every minute of it.
And that, my friends, is worth the extra $50 to check Legos on an airplane.
