Yesterday, a friend and I were g-chatting. Amongst many random thoughts, he wrote "... my favorite work word: unrequited." I don't know what context that word would be used in work, but it is a good word.

I had been thinking about unrequited love all this weekend so when I read his words it made me jump a bit. I had started a post about it, but scrapped it like so many lately. His words were as sign to salvage the posting. I have been going through a major writer's block. Nothing that comes on the screen seems to be satisfactory. But maybe it does not have to be satisfactory. Maybe satisfactory is a question that needs to be unrequited.

"The Princess Bride" was my favorite movie from the 7th grade to through the 9th grade when it got uncermoniously usurped by "Say Anything." I even bought the book, and read it so many times that the cover tore. When Mr. Jesdale, my 9th grade English teacher, gave us our reading list, I remember saying out loud to his chagrin, "'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding. I wonder if that is the same dude that wrote 'The Princess Bride'?" (For those who care, it is.)

Instead of doing something outdoors this weekend, I decided to watch a headache inducing amount of television and movies. This event began with "The Princess Bride." The cynic in me was shocked on why I had a picture of Cary Elwes framed. Apparently, the 13 year old version of me, was attracted to very fey men. But instead of focusing on the male protagonist, I kind of zoned out into Princess Buttersup's mind. How awful it must have been to have your feelings of true love unanswered for 5 years. Why didn't Wesley send her at least a letter of his existance. After all that to still sacrifice her happiness, for his life.

Had I changed so much? My favorite book in the 6th grade was "The Girl of the Limberlost." A story about a poor girl who lives in the backwoods. She has an emotional abusive mother, whom attention she desparately craves. Why did I think these stories of unrequited love were so sweet?

I can't answer that. I do know that it is everywhere. We as people must somehow gravitate to the notion that what is unanswered has the potential to be perfect. Or maybe we all think that eventually we will be rewarded for our patience. Or maybe yet it is a way to alleviate some of the hurt we feel through a collective empathy.

I think about all of my great loves and they have all been one sided. The egoist in me wonders if there is anyone out there pining away for me. Maybe I should keep writing. Because as in all movie plots, it is only when question of love gets answered that is when screen goes to black.