Lightness of being single, or not

When I first read him, I couldn't put the book down. He writes like no other. Milan Kundera wrote about the highs and lows of the single life in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. There was nothing light about it. The setting is a war torn Czechoslovakia (a country that no longer exists), for instance. When they made it into a movie, a very difficult adaptation given the weighty nature of the writing, Philip Kaufman had no less than Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche to star. Only they had the courage to bring to life words like these: “Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.” 

Photo credit: :fineartamerica.com

Fast forward 28 years (from the movie) or 32 years (from the book), I watched a random movie on board today. It's been a hectic week so I wanted to use the moment to unwind and picked a light movie. Even the title was simple: How To Be Single, a 'chick flick' starring Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson about four women and their differing attitudes to surviving the single life in New York complete with Central Park, indie music, lofts, fire escape balconies and of course sex and the city. 

The former is not a comedy. The second is supposed to be. In fact, for most part of the show, it succeeded. I laughed a few times. But it ends like all things built around casual relationships do: badly.

This year is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Though they disagree daily, theirs is a love that has stood the tests of time, and time did test them. And that's when it means the most. A fact substantiated by no less than father time. In 2014, we celebrated with both sets of parents the significance of all our respective relationships in a once-in-a-lifetime vacation for them. May their love truly last their lifetimes.

But back to the Single movie.  It started with "the thing about being single is you should cherish it", then tumbled into "you've never really cared about anyone enough to get hurt", descended into "I want to be alone. I know I've said that before but for the first time in my life, I truly mean it". It then rose with "I can totally handle all of this by myself ... But I don't want to"

It concluded with ..."the thing about being single is you get to be good at being alone but do we really want to be, so much so that you missed out at being with somebody great"

And that's the sum: being single is good. Double is better!