After the Rose . . .

My strategy with reality shows is to wait for the last couple of episodes to begin watching.  This enables me to dispense with all the preliminaries, i.e., selection process, eliminations, etc. until the core group is left.  I do this with American Idol, Survivor; heck, I even do this with books and films I know I will not have the time to read or watch (except for those I go to the spoiler web sites).  So, of course, with The Bachelorette, I was able to weave myself in at the next to the last episode and I did not have to deal with too-nice Jake or too-slimy Wes.  And I was treated to a real cliffhanger, or at least as close as to cliffhangers these “find your perfect mate” shows can get.  While I think Jillian did a terrific job of masking who her real choice would be, I do think she “loved” the three of them, and would have been happy with any of them.  I mean one minute she is sucking face with Kipton (literally the entire time they spent together on screen their faces were one).  But she chose the guy that was her best friend and made her laugh; of course, it helped that he was 6’2”, 200 lbs.  Even his dorky hair and “high school gym class” green swim shorts did not dissuade her nor his inability to rise to the occasion on their first night together.  But per the volcano imagery for the next date, I think they resolved that issue.

At the end of the day, this proves a fundamental point I have come to realize about love.  When I was in my late teens/early 20s, I bought into the love ideal and the “one right person out there for you.”  But as Jillian demonstrated, it is possible to experience love more than once and for her, even simultaneously.  I do believe for certain couples, perhaps 5%, there is the romantic ideal.  You can identify them as the ones who still like to talk to each other, be in the same room with each other, and hold hands after 20 years.  Who knows, maybe I will get to experience that one day even though my first shot at it did not work.  For those who have it, treasure it.  For love truly is a many-splendored thing.