Wednesday, March 09, 2005
: Madeleine Love
Madeleine Day: today recover a childhood memory
madeleine (MAD-uh-lin) noun
1. A small, rich cake baked in a fluted, shell-shaped pan.
2. Something that evokes memory or nostalgia.
There comes a point in childhood when girls no longer become the carriers of plagues in the eyes of young men, and they start to appear interesting, charming and (eventually we'll admit it) attractive. Of course, we then a thrust into an unfamiliar, complicated social situation for the very first time in our lives. We experience the very first kind of romantic tension. The boy is attracted to the girl, but any hint of this to the other boys and he will become a pariah to them.
Simon and Mandy in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love, then comes marriage
then comes Sandy in a baby carriage
Simon will be a very unhappy child - not only does he resent the mockery of his peers, but also the feelings he has for Mandy. He will be in conflict with his desires and consequently, set himself up for a long battle with depression and mild personality disorder that will be ignored for years to come.
Mandy, on the other hand, can blush and all will be well again. Girls can even feign concern for one another at that age. She has other girls to share her pain with. At least until they reach the age of 13 and discover what words like slut and bitch mean.
A few years later, boys will start noticing that other boys have suddenly started bragging about their girlfriends. Just like everything else, including Pokemon, Transformers and Spiderman, these boys will not want to be left out. However, they will soon realise that Mum and Dad aren't going to buy them girlfriends. They're going to have to purchase them, or acquire them, or at least earn them. There's no guide to girlfriends. It's all hit-and-miss until someone brings a copy of Playboy to school.
Once the boys, who now fancy themselves as educated young men, realise what this whole girlfriend thing is all about, they will, en masse, attempt to get into the skirt of every girl they meet for the next year or so. Some will be successful, and the subsequent bragging will only encourage their peers. Some will pretend that they have been successful and will describe their endeavours with the same vision and clarity that Bill Gates possessed when he predicted that 640k of RAM ought to be enough for anybody.
Which brings up the next source of tension to these young men. Boys are fiercely logical and hence, cannot understand how it is that girls can be so fickle, wasteful and indecisive. Eventually, some boys will fall over into the dark side and soon find themselves in possession of such traits. They will forever be seen as the 'elder brother figures' of these girls - and hence unlikely candidates for romance, passion and ultimately, copulation.
At this time, Young girls also grow increasingly aware of their additional attributes and the power that these give them over the simple minds of men. Some will shy away from the opposite sex in the archaic belief that purity can contained forever. Others will embrace these young men, while cutting their backs open with scalpels and removing their organs for sale.
By their teenage years, a vast array of boys and girls will make up the demographic. There will be those who are blissfully unaware of the joys and pitfalls of relationships, those who shun or shy away from them, and those who have more scratches than the Titanic. Very few relationships will last beyond these teenage years, simply because neither gender has even the vaguest idea what they are in it for.
For those who suffer humiliation, depression and/or disappointment, relationships will either become progressively more volatile or will entirely disappear from their day planners. Some shift back into the real world fairly well. Others become bitter or cold, and continue to rage against the machine well into their early 20s. Or until they meet their first hot-blooded latino counterpart. Some forgive and forget, some forgive but don't forget, and a further some don't forgive, don't forget, and become the most evil people alive.
The emptiness is a respite for those who were cheated. The constant dull throbs of pain save those who drifted away. Some will never reconcile their differences. Words will be left unsaid. Hope is left to waste away in some dilapitated house in a foreign land at the juncture of time immemorial and thoughts inconceivable. Next door, someone will be having a good shag and making sure everyone can hear that he is. The ironies and disappointments of romance are well-chronicled but rarely read.
Yet in the whirlwind of romance, desire and deception, we seldom forget the first time we were kissed. Our first love is the hardest to forget, though in its remembrance lies no special significance. We may still loathe the person or we may secretly harbour a wish to return to the past, but our hearts fail us not - it is our minds that crystallize these memories and make us slow to forget that which first moved us in ways we never believed we could.
Post a Comment
madeleine (MAD-uh-lin) noun
1. A small, rich cake baked in a fluted, shell-shaped pan.
2. Something that evokes memory or nostalgia.
There comes a point in childhood when girls no longer become the carriers of plagues in the eyes of young men, and they start to appear interesting, charming and (eventually we'll admit it) attractive. Of course, we then a thrust into an unfamiliar, complicated social situation for the very first time in our lives. We experience the very first kind of romantic tension. The boy is attracted to the girl, but any hint of this to the other boys and he will become a pariah to them.
Simon and Mandy in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love, then comes marriage
then comes Sandy in a baby carriage
Simon will be a very unhappy child - not only does he resent the mockery of his peers, but also the feelings he has for Mandy. He will be in conflict with his desires and consequently, set himself up for a long battle with depression and mild personality disorder that will be ignored for years to come.
Mandy, on the other hand, can blush and all will be well again. Girls can even feign concern for one another at that age. She has other girls to share her pain with. At least until they reach the age of 13 and discover what words like slut and bitch mean.
A few years later, boys will start noticing that other boys have suddenly started bragging about their girlfriends. Just like everything else, including Pokemon, Transformers and Spiderman, these boys will not want to be left out. However, they will soon realise that Mum and Dad aren't going to buy them girlfriends. They're going to have to purchase them, or acquire them, or at least earn them. There's no guide to girlfriends. It's all hit-and-miss until someone brings a copy of Playboy to school.
Once the boys, who now fancy themselves as educated young men, realise what this whole girlfriend thing is all about, they will, en masse, attempt to get into the skirt of every girl they meet for the next year or so. Some will be successful, and the subsequent bragging will only encourage their peers. Some will pretend that they have been successful and will describe their endeavours with the same vision and clarity that Bill Gates possessed when he predicted that 640k of RAM ought to be enough for anybody.
Which brings up the next source of tension to these young men. Boys are fiercely logical and hence, cannot understand how it is that girls can be so fickle, wasteful and indecisive. Eventually, some boys will fall over into the dark side and soon find themselves in possession of such traits. They will forever be seen as the 'elder brother figures' of these girls - and hence unlikely candidates for romance, passion and ultimately, copulation.
At this time, Young girls also grow increasingly aware of their additional attributes and the power that these give them over the simple minds of men. Some will shy away from the opposite sex in the archaic belief that purity can contained forever. Others will embrace these young men, while cutting their backs open with scalpels and removing their organs for sale.
By their teenage years, a vast array of boys and girls will make up the demographic. There will be those who are blissfully unaware of the joys and pitfalls of relationships, those who shun or shy away from them, and those who have more scratches than the Titanic. Very few relationships will last beyond these teenage years, simply because neither gender has even the vaguest idea what they are in it for.
For those who suffer humiliation, depression and/or disappointment, relationships will either become progressively more volatile or will entirely disappear from their day planners. Some shift back into the real world fairly well. Others become bitter or cold, and continue to rage against the machine well into their early 20s. Or until they meet their first hot-blooded latino counterpart. Some forgive and forget, some forgive but don't forget, and a further some don't forgive, don't forget, and become the most evil people alive.
The emptiness is a respite for those who were cheated. The constant dull throbs of pain save those who drifted away. Some will never reconcile their differences. Words will be left unsaid. Hope is left to waste away in some dilapitated house in a foreign land at the juncture of time immemorial and thoughts inconceivable. Next door, someone will be having a good shag and making sure everyone can hear that he is. The ironies and disappointments of romance are well-chronicled but rarely read.
Yet in the whirlwind of romance, desire and deception, we seldom forget the first time we were kissed. Our first love is the hardest to forget, though in its remembrance lies no special significance. We may still loathe the person or we may secretly harbour a wish to return to the past, but our hearts fail us not - it is our minds that crystallize these memories and make us slow to forget that which first moved us in ways we never believed we could.
Post a Comment