While watching the Capitol 4th Celebration on PBS last week, I had an epiphany about why I write romance novels. Watching Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond perform some of the most romantic pieces of music from the 70's, I remembered what it was like to be young and in love. The best part, though, was watchng the camera cut away to the crowd. Sometimes the camera would catch a young, hip, sexy couple kissing and I thought: Ah, young love! I remember you!
But my favorite cut-aways were to the Senior couples. Now, mind you, I have no aversion to young couples kissing unabashedly (except of course when it's on Big Brother). It's wonderful to see love and romance in its early stages--when love is new and everything feels so right (stars in your eyes, I think they call it).
However, watching the Senior couples holding hands quietly and enjoying the music (and each other) in ways the young couple has yet to experience, made me realize how important romance novels are in the writing world. Senior romance (I'm not going to call it old love), is quiet with lots of unspoken, interwoven threads between the partners. A look that conveys "I love you deeply, though I don't always say it aloud". It takes a long time of being together to create those kinds of threads. And it's those "threads" that galvanize readers into reading a romance book they can't put down.
Is Senior love better than Young love? Not at all. They're different, that's all. What makes the difference? Time. You learn so much about love and romance the longer you stay alive on this earth. When you're young, everything is fresh and new and exciting (as it should be). But by the time you reach your senior years, you've come to fully understand the true meaning of unconditional love in all its forms--love of country, love of family, love of your fellowman. No wonder so many seniors in their 90's are ready to leave this world behind and move on to the astral world. After all, they're taking all the love they've experienced with them when they go. And if that isn't the most romantic thing about love, I don't know what is.
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