"I wuz wookin' pa nub in all da wong paces, wookin' pa nub..." -Buckwheat

So, there was a bulletin posted on my Myspace in the last couple of days. It was one of those surveys that we are all so very excited to participate in. Especially when someone tells us we have to or some extremity is going to fall off. I don't usually do them. I do like to read them, though. It's the voyeur in me. Oh, who am I kidding. We all like to read them for that very reason. Aren't we all voyeurs in one way or another? I digress. Don't keep letting me do that. Back on task. So I was reading the questions and answers on this one and as usual, I was answering them in my head as well. I suddenly stopped though. I could not believe how much this question stumped me. I know I have been asked this question a thousand times but I don't think I ever really answered it. I think I always had some canned answer that would appease the asker and we'd move on. As I sat alone, with no one to judge my answer, I actually thought about it. Guess you want to know what the question was, huh? "Do you believe in TRUE LOVE?" Now, I know what y'all are thinking. It's the same thing I thought at first.... Well, yeah....I believe in true love.....That's when the stumping happened. Do I really? Do I really believe in the fairy tale idea of true love? Do I really picture Wesley and Buttercup on that mountain top in Princess Bride when she pushes the Man in Black down the hill and as he is tumbling head over heels and yelling "AS YOU WIIIIIISH" she realizes it's Wesley and jumps after him? Is that real? Or am I like Miracle Max from the aforementioned movie who believes that a nice Mutton, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich is just as good as true love? Am I like Berowne from Love's Labor's Lost who spends his whole life chastising lovers and people in love only to find himself mesmerized by "among three, the worst of all....a whitely wanton with a....velvet brow, with two pitch balls stuck in her face....for eyes." Which is it? What category do I belong in. I have always said, yes. Plain and simple. It is possible. So, why am I single. Isn't 34 years enough time to wait for it? If it were the middle ages, I would be an old man. Life expectancy back then was about 30, so if I did not have "true love" by this point, I would be S.O.L. Of course, they also had no sewers below the ground back then. They were all above ground and ran right through the middle of town. That might explain the short lives.....Digressing again...... Back to me being single. I wondered, am I single because I have not found true love or do I know my true love but I am just not with them? Deep, huh? Wanna go deeper (Oooooo that did not sound good....)? Wanna delve deeper into it than that (that sounds better)? Is your "soul mate" the same as your "true love?" Is the person with whom your soul is intertwined so deeply with that you will be together on the other side the same person you are destined to be with on this side? Is it? C'mon Mr/Miss Know -It - All.... Tell me. I really need to know. It's kind of important. This is where I went when I read the question. Are you there with me? Do you remember in The Princess Bride when Wesley could not die because he had true love? He was only "mostly dead." Remember how Buttercup was going to kill herself when she thought that Wesley was dead? Hang on....That just might be it.... We have all heard the stories of the couples who have been together for so many years that when one of them died, the other went in a matter of a few months. Not wanting to live without their true love. They just gave up. They died of a broken heart. This happens with couples who have not been together for that long. I know this. It happened in my family. Some non-believers said that there were explainable medical reasons why she died so soon after her husband but if you ask her brother, she died of a broken heart. Plain and simple. We miss you Michelle. I think that's it. I think I have the answer. I do believe in true love. I believe it is the love between two people that exists as long as the two people are here on earth. Doesn't matter if they are together all of the time. It just matters that they are here. On this big green floating ball in the sky. The thought of them not being here ever again is too much for the other to live with. They cannot continue on. Shakespeare wrote a whole play about this kind of love. You know which one? Remember the "star-crossed lovers?" Romeo and Juliet. Romeo says to himself, "...see how she leans her cheek upon her hand? Oh, that I were a glove on that hand that I might touch that cheek..." That is love, folks. Deep love. Do you have it?