cheek to cheek

having left a very attractive boyfriend at home, i find myself thinking about love a lot these days. i walk through the streets of paris and see people making out left and right. PDA is not only accepted here, it's expected.

... secretly, i kind of like it.

but what i like even more is this blog post by my good friend maggie. you can find her blog here.

Then you must speak

of one that lov'd not wisely but too well...

-Othello Act 5, scene 2, 344-

I have never read Othello or seen it performed, and I hardly know the story. From what I have heard, this line doesn't make much sense in its context. Apparently a lot of people think Othello was just in major denial when he said it.

Earlier this week I was listening to my town's classical music station and a program called Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin was on. After a Mahler symphony {no. 1, I think}, Bill McGlaughlin commented that this piece was a love letter from Mahler to his wife, Alma. He then quoted this line of Shakespeare and it was the first time I'd heard it. I didn't know the context, so I just assumed the same meaning that McGlaughlin implied: that Mahler simply loved Alma too much, too passionately, too well.

Is it possible to love too much? I think so, and I think I do it. I love too well, and not wisely. But "well" is really not the best adverb to describe it. "Well" implies that I'm doing a good job at it, when really I'm not. I'm being very unwise. I'm too quick to love, too swayed by love, too hopelessly in love, too easily convinced that something is love.

It is confusing. Love seems like a good thing. No, it is a good thing. I don't need to love less, I just need to love better.