"...And Maybe Then You'll Know What Love Is"

24 September 2009

 by KalikeCA, Esq

As we saw in the last lecture, love can give a person courage and strength. However, it can also make a person act irrationally, as even Pepa acknowledged that there are a lot of "shitty things that a person does thanks to love."

This was certainly true in Pepa's case. After one too many shots of tequila, Pepa, in an inebriated state of love, told Silvia that she wanted to have children with her. Once sobriety set in, Pepa unintentionally humiliated Silvia while venting her frustrations to Paco and literally got her mouth "busted open for love" as a result. But Pepa was so in love and wanted so desperately to make the woman she loved happy that it led her to genuinely believe that if she found a man to impregnate herself, Silvia would see how much she loved her.


Although love clouded Pepa's judgment and only exacerbated the situation, it was also love that prevented Pepa from walking away even when Silvia asked Pepa to let her go. Pepa's love for Silvia was so strong that she literally couldn't "stand the thought of being more than 2 centimeters apart" from her and it was this love that made her fight for their relationship. And if this meant that Pepa would have to file a bogus mobbing charge against Silvia and pretend to be pregnant and dating someone else, then Pepa would do it. Because love had convinced Pepa that she couldn't be, and never wanted to be, just friends with Silvia.

Love sustained Pepa's faith in her belief that she and Silvia were always meant to be together. Faith that they would eventually reconcile. Faith that she didn't need a Top 5 list of fantasies, because "the only star (in her life) will be (her) redhead: (her) fiance, the one who's going to be (her) wife." Faith that if Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, Raphael and Natalia Figueroa and other celebrity couples can be happily married, then so can Pepa and Silvia.

Upon her return to San Antonio, Pepa was socked in the face with love, and from that point on, she let it become the driving force behind her major life decisions. Love got her to stay in San Antonio. Love allowed her to believe that she and Silvia could be more than friends. Love motivated her to fight for their relationship even when it seemed like a lost cause. And love overpowered her fears, erasing them and leaving only joy. The pure joy that can only be experienced from staring into the eyes of your true love. A love that leaves you with a million-watt smile and a feeling you can't get rid of and, you realize, you never want to get rid of.

Because once you've been socked in the face with love, you know what love truly is, and you realize you'll do anything you have to in order to hold on to that feeling.

kalike

*The titles for these first two lectures are based on lyrics from the song "Sock You in the Face with Love" by The XYZ Affair.

6 Comments:

Dr. Pied Piper said...

Great lecture, KC! Phenomenology of Pepa's Love is always a great thesis. But I cannot help but wonder if Dr. Booker put you up to this. That it's one of her lame-ass attempts to send me into my sabbatical earlier than planned.

Because she knows that I simply CANNOT talk about L-O-V-E for a sustained period of time without breaking into hives. That is NOT one of my favorite topics. I seldom do mush and romance, and she knows that I run away when confronted with such.

But this is not about me.

Pepa had been foolish, had been scared, had been brave, all because she had loved. Love simply takes us out of our comfort zone and throws us into that great maelstrom of the unknown, and what we find there could be nothing, or it could be what turns our world upside down. It's exciting and frightening at the same time and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. Because before such a force, what chance do we mortals have? It defies the basic laws of physics, and it sure defies the basic nature of humanity.

And that's why love is never one of my favorite topics. It's like a blackhole, where its dimensions and strength and force can only be measured by its reflections (or lack of it) on those around it, and those that get sucked into it.

I still agree with my Wise Friend: It is one great conspiracy. A joke that God that has imprinted on His hapless (and greatest) creatures.

swiftlyreloaded said...

yes LOVE is POWERFUL & exciting. love also is a risk, you could be falling, but the object of your affection could NOT.Love also is rewarding knowing your affection is reciprocated. There's nothing like being in love it's a wonderful, arrogant, & secure emotion. if you have it cherish it cuz if you lose it LOVE stings worse than a bee.

angie005 said...

Kalike,

Great finish to an already fabulous lecture. I was trying to figure out where I heard that quote from =)

But this begs the question… why is society so obsessed in finding love? Being in love and having love?
LHDP is a prime example that love is a major factor of their daily lives. Not just with Pepa and Silvia, but with Sara/Lucas, Montoya/Rita/Pove, Aitor/Sara and yes, even Curtis.

Swiftlyreloaded was correct, love is a powerful emotion but why when one emotion has a good and bad side do we still make it our life course? Why do we never give up?

We have all done foolish things for love; I don’t deny it.

Maybe love is overrated.

booker said...

I have never heard such cynical words about love before! Love is in the air, Angie and Dr Piper, go outside and take a sniff.
great second lecture, I love all the love talk.

Dr.Piper, do you want to borrow my suitcase?

kalike said...

Angie, great question.

I think we still make love our life course, b/c once we've experienced how great it is, we want to hold onto it forever. I think that the bad side effects of love occur when we feel like we might be losing it. That's when we start to act irrationally or out of character - we're so desperate to keep it in our lives that we often end up doing things we would never normally do. In that way, love literally drives us crazy. And I believe that when a relationship doesn't work out, for whatever reason, we never give up on finding love (whether it's with that same person down the road or with someone completely different), b/c we just want to recapture that feeling we used to have.

For those who have never experienced love, I think they (sometimes unknowingly) make it their life course, b/c they can see the joy that it brings to others and they just want to feel that emotion too. It's curiosity - is love really that great? Can it really make you that happy? I think they seek it out to answer those questions. And that makes them willing to take risks, like swiftlyreloaded said, hoping that their feelings are reciprocated and allow them to experience the joy that others have.

bigmarianfan said...

LOVED your first lecture KalikeCA! Of course I cannot relate to it because I have never been in love(poor BMF) but it was still a joy to read! Good job x