Sprinkle-Me: March 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Where, O Where, Is Prince Charming?

Meg Bender, Classroom Journalist

S. Briggs, Editor

The Greeks believed that love was sacred. You may have heard of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Greeks referred to love at first sight as, theia mania, which means a passionate madness from God. Has modern culture shifted away from Greek mythology on love? Are people falling madly in love as the Greeks did…or faking it? Could it be that the pursuit of love and romance has lost a true cult following?

Modern psychology suggests that there are two bases for ‘love at first sight’. First, people fall in love through attraction. A study suggests that we determine a person’s attractiveness in 0.13 seconds on average! Secondly, in the first few minutes of meeting someone new we form conjectures about a relationship’s future potential.

In a separate survey I recently conducted, I discovered that even young people have cast off the idea of love at first sight. Less than half of the middle school students I surveyed held a belief in finding true love. One student commented, “If you don’t get to know a person you cannot fall in love with them right away.”

Yet, if we look to Hollywood, the pursuit of true love is still a major cinematic theme. For instance, in The Notebook Noah immediately falls in love with Allie when he first sees her. Or take A Cinderella Story where Austin falls in love with Sam when he looks into her eyes. Similarly, in West Side Story Tony and Maria fall in love instantly. Begs the question: Is true love something we can only hope to embrace on a movie screen?

Love is a mystery – an unending quest which eludes many. William Shakespeare once said, “Love is a wonderful, terrible thing.” Nonetheless, there is hope for hopeless romantics. Ladies, you must be patient and not too preoccupied – Prince Charming will come to sweep you off your feet. And fellas keep searching for Cinderella and her glass slipper…she’s waiting for you to find her!