The Cynic’s Guide to ‘True Love’
How my parents ‘fairytale’ romance contributed to my outlook on life and love.
It usually starts with a Disney movie. You are the doe-eyed child staring longingly at the cartoon screen as the prince and princess finally kiss before they go on to live happily ever after. Too young to have any comprehension of what maintaining a relationship with another human being actually involves.
Your parents are no help. They’re one of those couples.
You know, the type — Been together since the flood, knew from the first moment they looked at each other they’d found ‘the one’, occasional bickering is as close to a ‘fight’ as they get, still walk hand in hand down the street and always kiss each other goodbye and say “I love you” before they go to bed at night.
As a kid, you watch the fairytales play out on screen or read about them in your books. You watch your parents together at home and decide with the absence of talking animal sidekicks, evil witches and enchanted forests; they’re about as close to the ‘fairytale’ as real life gets. You hang on every word when they tell you the story of how they met for the hundredth time, imagining the day your true love will “step on your foot, turn around to stop you from tripping over and then when your eyes meet, will fall madly in love at first sight”.
