This story really surprised me. So many times due to movies, novels, and other means of the media we are known happy endings to be well.. “happy”/ The media paints a picture of what happy should be or look like but by doing so many times we are then driven away from reality. Reality is that not all love stories will end in a happy ending. Just as in the reading when John the husband shoots his wife Mary, and her lover. Some would justify what the wife and her lover did as okay because the husband was probably doing the same or maybe he just wasn’t meeting her needs; they might have loved each other at one point but not anymore.
In the other case where John never really loved Mary but simply used her to his own pleasure. Mary allows this to continue because she loves John and hopes that someday he will love her in return. In the end Mary ends up taking pills hoping that John would come looking for her but that doesn’t happen. I personally would not have considered this ending to be happy because well, it’s not but it is reality.
Reading through these various options of happy endings I came to the realization that all these tragic stories occur more than we think. Reality is people everywhere are looking for love, to love, and to be loved. Some endings really do end happily where love is being given as much as it is being received. There are other endings where one loves more than the other, others might not even be love but infatuation or obsession. Reality is these stories happen everyday and we don’t even realize it.
What we read about Terri and Ed is also a representation of something that occurs in
ReplyDeletereal life. And, just like with the situations presented in "Happy Endings,"
situations of physical, mental, and emotional
abuse occurs more frequently then we would like to think. Sure, we hear all these news stories about women who have been abused by their husbands and boyfriends, but there thousands of other similar things occuring every day, behind closed doors that no one is aware of.
I like how you make the point that movies and novels form in our mind what Love is. We always want the "happy" endings in our lives and the lives of others but just like you said, that is not reality. Reality is hard and difficult and sometimes quite messy, like some of the endings in the story.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if all true love ends happily....I think the problem with media is not that they are saying every love story ends happily but what they are describing the love story as is the problem.
ReplyDeleteThe love stories of Hollywood that end happily are the ones who have sex 12 hours after meeting, the relationships that started out with lies, and the spouse that did good to herself by divorcing her husband for another "good" man.
I think the true love stories that end happily would be the ones that show a wife loving her man through an adultery and him choosing to remain true to her, or a man who stands by his wife for support even though he may not believe in what she is doing as much as he believes in her.
It is the true love....that can change EVERYTHING, that is so rare these days, that is the Love that always ends happily.
When you say that people everywhere are looking to love and to be loved, I couldn't agree with you more. I believe we were created for that very purpose and I believe that very purpose of living is one of humanities biggest problems because we search for it in the wrong places or in wrong ways. God should be our ultimate source of Love, giving and receiving...
ReplyDeleteAs for the media, I also believe it gives a false interpretation of love...