With no one here but me
“Romance,” declared Lisa Simpson, “is dead. It was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, then sold off piece by piece.”
For some of us, maybe. I’m not so sure about the French:
A tale of lost love across the seas has been discovered hiding in a bottle washed up at Praa Sands.
Martin Leslie, a coastguard manager, was clearing the beach when he discovered a bottle containing a letter written in French, dated September 28, together with a lock of hair.
Oh, for a real-life Babelfish:
Mr Leslie tried to translate the letter using the internet but could only interpret words relating to love, death and missing someone.
He assumed it was a suicide note and handed it to Falmouth coastguards to pass onto their colleagues in France.
Which seems the proper action for a public servant: assume the worst.
It was at this point that it was discovered the letter in fact was a love letter written by an unnamed French woman to her lover, who had returned to his wife.
Mr Leslie said the woman explained in the letter that she had had a good with her lover and loved him, but understood that he had to return to his wife.
She finished by saying she hoped to find another man like him with whom to live “a beautiful life.”
Trini called me about this after seeing a wire story on NewsOK; I’m not sure if there’s a scale between “wistful” and “dejected,” and if so, where my mood fell at that moment. I didn’t track it down further until later that day, and “dejected” quickly took control.
It didn’t help that the handful of NewsOK commenters proved to be a scornful bunch. Wise men, all. But how are they to know? Have they ever bottled up their own loneliness and cast it upon the waters?
Then again, having gotten too close to the waters myself, I’m probably the wrong person to pass along this story.
fillyjonk »
29 October 2009 · 7:13 am
“the handful of NewsOK commenters proved to be a scornful bunch.”
Isn’t that true of many public sites? I can’t even read the comments on YouTube videos; they alternately make me hate my fellow man and despair for him.
Still, I think that does say something about the death of romance in modern life. It’s preferable, apparently, to mock something, than it is to appear to be even slightly moved by it. (To quote another Simpsons situation: The Law of the Schoolyard.)
Jeffro »
29 October 2009 · 7:43 am
Nope – you are exactly the right sort.