The grand gesture of Love

Oct 24, 2010

I was watching Love Actually last night, one of my favorite romantic movies, I like the big ensemble movies but the standard romantic comedies are usually lame. Boy and girl hate each other, boy and girl are thrown together in unusual circumstance, boy and girl realize they love each other. BORING

But anyway, Love Actually is really about the love. The lengths people will go to express their love. Sam, the little boy who learns to play the drums just to get in the school concert that his love is in, is probably my favorite. And of course the one where the Prime Minister knocks on every door in town to find the office girl, that everyone else calls fat, because he's smitten with her and almost lost her once, resonates with me.

It's been a long damn time since I had anyone express their love for me that wasn't during sex or from hundreds of miles away. One that always sticks in my mind was the boyfriend I was with in my teens and early 20's. We were still living with our respective parents and he didn't have a car yet. While on the phone I mentioned that I didn't have time to do laundry because of classes and work.  Without a word to me, he took an hour bus ride to my house and did my laundry for me while I was at work. I came home to a folded basket of clothes and a love note. To me, that was a grand gesture of love at the time and still one of the sweetest things a guy has ever done.

I'm definitely a sucker for the grand gesture. It doesn't need to be expensive at all, it just needs to show me that he thought about it and put some effort into it.