Sunday, January 1, 2012

McRomance

"Excuse me!" "Ma'am!" You hear the faint voice growing louder. "Do you want fries with that?" You blink and find yourself standing in the middle of your local McDonald's. You come back to reality and realize you are on a first date with the man you met at the grocery store two weeks before. You finally reply to the voice behind the counter and ask them to “large size” that fry. As you take the seat across from the handsome young man, you can't help but drift in and out of the conversation. There is definitely nothing romantic about this date. Nothing romantic about the fries you are sharing, and nothing romantic about the screaming kids fighting over their happy meals. You find yourself day dreaming about the black and white films you watch alone on Saturday night. What ever happened to romance? Is it a thing of the past? There is definitely not a thing that screams romance over french fries. Have we lost touch for the desire of love? When is the last time you witnessed a man open a door for a lady? Or perhaps the car door for the lady he was treating to a night out on the town? Is that something we as women do not crave? It seems as if when we do meet a charming young man, who is a complete gentleman, we don’t know how to react. We respond with surprise and a bit of awkwardness, when it’s simply something we should be accustomed too, a thing that feels natural to us. Maybe if more men behaved as gentlemen, love would always be in the air. Instead of being asked if we would like fries with that, we could be asked what selection of wine we would enjoy with our dinner. Doesn’t that sound a bit more attractive? We should call this “reasonable accommodation”. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be treated like a lady. The truth is, we can’t blame anybody but ourselves. We allowed romance to escape our lives, yet with no examples to follow but black and white movies how can we ever get it back? Perhaps a trip to Paris would rekindle the flame. Why not bring Paris to us? We all have daydreams about love, why not make them worthwhile.