Love Actually“ is ”About Time“

I must start by apologizing. I have often times declared with pride that I am an old romantic.

I still think I am. It is a fact that I’m old and still romantic.

But I feel I have lied to you and even to myself.

I hope you can see the irony in what I am about to tell you.

My most successful story to date has been “I wish you enough!” It has opened many doors and oh, yes, hearts to the fact that love is eternal.

I mean love of all kinds, between all people. Like romantic love, love for our children, parents, spouses, family, friends, neighbors, love of country and our pets, just to name a few, make life worth living.

“I wish you enough!” took place at an airport.

I wrote: “I love them and I hate them. I love them because of the people I get to watch. But they are also the same reason why I hate airports. It all comes down to ”hello“ and ”goodbye.“

Oddly, my marriage ended at the airport. There were no last hugs and kisses, no clinging to or struggling with letting go.

As requested, I left her at the door and drove away.

In the final year of our marriage I spent a lot of time at the movies by myself. Yes, they were all romantic movies. I was in search of what I wanted to have again.

Through the years of my adult life I have always been drawn to the genre. Not very manly of me to admit, but I am not ashamed to tell you.

Tonight I discovered that I missed a classic. I can’t believe it. It was from 2003 and I still hear people talk about it today.

Tonight I watched “Love Actually.”

Here’s the irony. It opens with a scene at an airport. The narrator speaks about how much he loves to be there because it proves to him that “Love Actually…is all around.”

In my view of the same airport scenario I wrote: “So, when faced with a challenge in my life I have been known to go to our local airport and watch people say goodbye. I figure nothing that is happening to me at the time could be as bad as having to say goodbye.”

What are the odds?

I include with this message a short clip of the opening airport scene from “Love Actually.” Take a moment and see what you see in it.

This past week I went to see a movie about another favorite theme of mine, time travel.

Yes, I saw “About Time.”

My all time favorite romantic movie is “Somewhere in Time.” Like “About Time” it combines both romance and time travel.

Absolute heaven to me.

Wait this gets better.

I sat down and began writing a message for you tonight. It was about a recent post I saw on Face Book. The question was posed, “If you could go back and relive a day, what day would it be and why?”

Many of the responses reflected regrets people had. They wanted to go back to a day before someone they loved passed away so that they could say the things they wanted to say. Some wanted to go back to happy, special occasions but could not choose just one.

I wrote, “If I could go back it would be to right a wrong I had done. But I’ve done so many wrong things, I could not pick just one. So, I would go back to this morning. This wasn’t a bad day at all.”

So, I began writing about that question. Then the strangest thing happened. I was in the process of editing it and it suddenly completely disappeared from my screen.

Gone. Deleted. No way to retrieve it.

That’s when I thought it wasn’t meant to be and I went downstairs and looked for a movie.

I ended up watching a movie I should have seen in 2003 but didn’t watch it until tonight.

Then I searched for a clip of the opening scene to share with you and found the trailer for “About Time.”

Which, I just discovered, was created by the same person who produced “Love Actually.”

I wrote a story about saying goodbye at the airport.

My marriage ended saying goodbye at the airport.

“Love Actually” is about saying hello at the airport and finding love.

“About Time” is about going back in time for love’s sake.

The story I was writing asked the question “What day in your life would you return to if you could.”

It disappeared.

Here’s the thing. You can’t go back in time, but you can make sure that the time you have isn’t wasted.

Love is about saying hello and goodbye.

And sometimes people disappear from your story for no apparent reason.

But I can say with complete certainty that… “Love Actually” is “About Time.”

Here is the opening scene from “Love Actually” at the airport:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMScPVO4rLw&feature=youtu.be

Love is there if you choose to see it.

But you can’t go back. Here’s the “About Time” Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oz4jO9Qf_0

Bob Perks