longevity - noun - long existence or service (Google)
The word longevity usually refers to length of life, but it also can relate to any abstract concept, like love, that lasts a long time. Last night, I turned to Netflix hoping to find a documentary that would speak to me. One that came with a 98% recommendation was "My Love," a short series of biographies detailing the ordinary lives of couples who have somehow managed to stay together through thick or thin for fifty years or more. As I am always enthralled by how some people can swing romantic longevity, I clicked on the start arrow.
Admittedly, I did not make it through all of the first episode due to the fact that it was extremely slow moving, I was tired, and my foam mattress was beckoning to me from the next bedroom. However, I did learn something from the twenty or so minutes that I watched. The Vermont couple featured, wed for sixty years (give or take), were (and may still are) the owners and operators of a farm producing maple syrup (no surprises there, given regional stereotypes). Given what I know about ardor in the 1950s, their backstory seemed quite ordinary enough. They had met in high school although she had not paid him much heed owing to a crush on his friend. Yet–albeit initially unrequited–his love for her had been at first sight. A few years later, at 24, he proposed to her. Despite being nineteen at the time, she accepted. They wound up marrying, raising six children together, and staying put in the same clapboard farmhouse for decades.
Sounds a bit ho hum? No, not really. These two have succeeded in solving a confounding equation involving an uncommon denominator: the longevity of romantic love. Ostensibly, what it takes for two to last forever is as follows: 1. Affection: Although both husband and wife are in their eighties, neither has been capable of keeping his/her hands off each other (at least during the taping). 2. Common purpose: Both have been involved in the daily operations of their company for a very long time. 3. Unconditional acceptance: The husband has tolerated his wife's vibrant personality in the spotlight, whereas she has condoned his being antisocial in the shadows. 4. Consistence: The husband has never fallen out of love with his wife, and she has never failed to return his love. 5. Engagement: There has been a lot of back and forth in terms of communication. Neither has shut out the other.
So there you have it. The five-part secret of how people stay together interminably has just been revealed. Yes, love longevity is possible (if only in Vermont :) ).
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