Last night my sister and I visited Salt Lake Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. We were looking at the nativities from different countries when something caught our eye: A young woman standing on the round stone where couples pose for wedding pictures and a young man on his knee holding a small, open ring box.
My sister and I shamelessly watched (and yes, I'll admit it, I got a little choked up) as the girl threw her arms around the guy's neck and he twirled her around in circles. We didn't hear the words, but we assumed he had asked her to marry him and she had said yes.
Witnessing this proposal made me think about a conversation I recently had with my husband. I read him a passage in a book I'm working on where the hero proposes to the heroine in a very over the top romantic way. After I read the passage, I asked my husband if it was too mushy. He said, "No. But it makes me sad. I just took you to a park and we sat on the ground on an old poncho."
To me the park and old poncho were a million times better than what I had written and what I had witnessed at Temple Square, but this got me thinking. Is it true what some people say about books with over the top romance, do they really paint an unrealistic picture of love? And if they do, is that really a bad thing?
What do you think? I'd like to know.
3 comments:
Hmmm...I think anything goes in fiction. When I read it, I know it's made up. So, no, I don't expect my real world to mirror all the fun stuff I'm reading. Good question!
I know that when my son-in-law proposed to my daughter it was really romantic, including rose petals, 2 dozen red roses in a beautiful vase, lit candles, a blanket, chocolates, and sparkling cider on their favorite dock on Tempe Town Lake. Mindy and Nathan's siblings decorated and protected the dock (without being seen) until he got her there. When she saw it she said, "Look what someone did to our dock!" She was afraid to look closer thinking it was for someone else, so he ended up picking her up and carrying her onto it. After he proposed, by getting on one knee...he was the one who cried because she said yes!
When I read a lot of romance, I tend to feel a little disappointed in my own humdrum life. But I wouldn't trade my own proposal for anything.
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