A Revelation about Romance

My theme for the A-Z blogging challenge is "Tempting Top Ten lists" - and  I thought R would be a piece of cake. I love romance, and it's a pretty safe best most females do too, whether they admit it or not. So much potential for  tempting top ten list! So first I started putting together my favorite romantic comedy movies.

This is how far I got: 

1. My Big Fat Greek Wedding

I thought Pretty Woman would be on this list, but a movie I loved 20 years ago... discovered it's really just a couple scenes from that movie that I still love; the rest of it is so.... corny. Same for When Harry Met Sally, and What Women Want. There are some great scenes in Crazy Stupid Love, Valentine's Day, and How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days - but aside from the LOL moments, the movies in entirety just couldn't muster enough to make a Top Ten List.

So then I thought, well, how about a top ten list of romantic ideas? I started blushing before even getting to the list, and wipe that grin off your face, because what I mean is this stuff looks CORNY when you put it into list form. And it's all kind of "duh" stuff anyway. Candles, flowers, chocolate, surprise get-aways (surprise anything! - except surprise pets, that is way too risky), smarmy love letters or provocative texts, yeah, we all know all this stuff, even the guys, they are just mostly in denial.

There was really only one that seemed truly list worthy:

1. Reach for her hand and  lift it to your lips, leaning forward, all the while keeping eye contact.

Swoon! I coached my husband on how to do this, and even though it was "training" situation, it still made my heart go flip-flop. Then I tried it on my husband and I could tell it got to him, too, though he'll kill me if he ever reads this post.

So, after my failed attempts at top-ten-listing, I had a Revelation about Romance (for me, at any rate). A woman never grows too old for romance, but her views about it certainly change.  Turns out what really appeals to me is the fourth listing under Romantic, a la Merriam Webster dictionary:

1. Consisting of or resembling a romance: an ardent emotional attachment or involvement; love
2.having no basis in fact  (now, isn't that ironic??)
3. impractical in conception or plan (even more ironic)
4. marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized

This explains why my notion of "romantic" is idealized in fantasy stories like the Lord of the Rings, or even stories with heros but no romance in them at all: To Kill A Mockingbird, where Atticus fights a losing battle because he believes in equality and justice so deeply, and a misunderstood outcast (Boo Radley) ends up saving the day. Now that's romantic.


Which definition of romance appeals to you?