How did you learn about romance?

 

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid there was not a whole lot of talk about romance in my household. There was no discussion of courtship around the dinner table. In fact, there wasn’t much talk of anything around the dinner table, mostly just a whole lot of eating.

 

My parents weren’t very romantic people. I think they could have been, but they were too busy feeding and taking care of us 6 kids which didn’t leave them with a whole lot of time or energy for romance. As a result, I did not really have any romantic role models to look to. The result: a guy that is romantically challenged.

 

School days

 

While I definitely learned many lessons in school, both during classes from my teachers and between classes with my friends, romance was not on the agenda. In fact, school may very well have provided the antithesis of romance. For the cold sterile walls and the rows of grey metal lockers hardly harbored an atmosphere for love and caring.

 

The silver screen

 

While school and home life provided little in the way of romantic lessons, I did have one source, the movies. Not the films of my generation, but the classics. One of my earliest memories was seeing Disney’s animated version of Cinderella, and also of a made for TV version with Leslie Ann Warren and Richard Chamberlain. What could be more romantic than going door to door with a glass slipper? Although I always wondered why the prince didn’t just stumble upon another woman with the same shoe size as Cinderella.

 

Despite my upbringing even I could see that Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart were romantic guys. So at least I had some inkling as to what might be considered romantic. However, the question was, and still remains, how to translate the actions of leading men from the 40’s and 50’s into the present day?

 

 

A piece of the puzzle

 

As an adult I still have displayed little that would make the ladies swoon for my attentions. However, as I have learned more about relationships and how to make them work, I have also learned that romance is much simpler than you might think.

 

One thing I can tell you about romance is that it doesn’t require a sunset cruise on a private yacht or even a surprise trip to Paris, although these gestures probably wouldn’t hurt either (assuming that you lead a lifestyle of the rich and famous.) The real key is to truly know your loved one enough to show them that you care. Whether it’s as simple as buying them the foods they like or walking their dog on a cold day when they don’t want to go out.

 

It’s been a long time since I was in school but I can tell you that it is never too late to learn how to bring more romance into your life. So go ahead and do something that your sweetie will really appreciate today!

 

 Written by Peter Eisenberg - 3/04