P. Divvy Thinks

Today my Valentine is a beautiful Art Historian and I discuss the idea of “Love at First Sight.”

Valentine #7: Brooke Steinhauser

A little about Brooke: Brooke is a fellow alumn from Amherst Regional High School. We did a lot of acting together. She went on to study Art History and Theater at Muhlenberg. Now she's studying Museum Studies at Cooperstown.

Commence Wooing
Baby, I know you'll be working in a museum, but you'd better hide yourself before the general public enters. They'll think you're the main attraction. Well, you are for me, and I plan to take you to my place and unveil you.

Our Dream Date: I would take her to an art museum first (obviously), where I would nod furiously saying “Oh, most certainly” to everything she had to say. Women love a man who can follow Art Theory. Then I would impress her with my made up words at a wine-tasting. “Ah yes, this is a most callipygous wine that coats the tongue like a hermaphroditic rapscallion's long coat, by divine Providence!”

Today's Subject: Love at First Sight

I think people choose not to believe in love at first sight for two reasons: either it adds phony supernatural properties to love, or it cheapens the emotion all together. Love isn't two predestined partners finally finding each other, but it's a strong emotion nonetheless that cannot be reduced to physical attraction.

I do believe in love at first sight. I always have. Of course, this is based on my feeling of what love is. It's just attraction to me. Wanting to be with someone.

I was talking to a friend who is a girl, and she said she can't do that whole... doing stuff with someone she just met because she needs emotional attachment. But what if those who do a one night stand fall just a little bit in love with their partner that night?

“But Paul, that's just lust talking!” you might say.

Think back on your past relationships. Do you remember the moment you “fell in love” with your significant other? Because the closest moment that comes to me is when I said, “Holy shit, who's that girl?”

Sometimes I'm instantly attracted to a girl only to become disinterested after one conversation. You know, I find out she's a raging Republican or that she's more interested in her cell phone than she is in her surroundings. That means I fell out of love with her as quickly as I fell in love with her. If I still love you in a week, you probably have a banging personality or I have bad taste.

It's not just physical features that determines whether I love a girl. I think you can read into a girl's personality by how she carries herself as she walks into a room. Is she relaxed? Is she smiling? I melt for a beautiful smile, because I think it signals to me that the girl is friendly.

Sure it could be a facade, but we fall in love with facades. The facades we choose are our own and have something to do with who we are. I keep several for different situations. Paul the server, Paul the substitute teacher, and Paul at a party are almost completely different people, but they all have something to do with my values. We fall out of love once we realize the facade doesn't deliver.

Maybe the cautious don't fall in love at first sight, but individuals like me who think they can read someone at first glance are more likely to fall in love, and then fall out of love half an hour later when we find that the person is a bore. I guess Elvis was right when he said “Only fools rush in.” Or rather, he said that “Wise men say, 'Only fools rush in.'”

On the other hand, maybe I don't know what love is.

New Valentine's Day recommendation: Romeo & Juliet directed by Fraco Zeffirelli. This is most likely the version you saw in ninth grade English that made all the high school boys jump in their desks and say "Whoa, nipples!"

Romeo & Juliet has sparked some debate as to whether the young couple is really in love or just lusting after each other. This movie makes you believe both.