True Romance is it what love is or is it what makes good reading in Romance Books and Magazines?

Posted on 3rd July 2013
in Happiness, Next Year in Jerusalem! Part 1, Next Year in Jerusalem! Part 2, Romantic Fiction
by Barbara Holstein

Yehudit Channen comments in her recent article TRUE ROMANCE at http://www.aish.com/d/w/91463044.html “I spent a lot of my childhood reading my grandmother’s large collection of True Romance magazines. My grandmother immigrated to America from Hungary when she was a teenager, and that’s the highest literary level she ever achieved. Either that or she really enjoyed the glamour and escape those comics provided after a long day in the grocery store she owned with my grandfather.

At any rate, I found the melodramatic stories terribly intriguing, with all the complications and anxiety that romance can provide. There was always some sort of love triangle going on or an awful misunderstanding, with break-ups and make-ups that continued on into sequels. I was fascinated by the obsessions and heartache the characters endured, and I assumed I was learning all about love relationships. True Romance 101….”

I too was immersed in the True Romance notions that I was exposed to growing up. They included not only the drama I found in many True Romance magazines but lots of fairytale notions of how one should be found by a true love.

I assumed that true love, romantic love, was being swept away in some fashion. I knew no one on a white horse would come to get me, but I did imagine being ‘chosen’ by someone who would frame the story of the rest of my life. Remaining single was not an option. I was desperate by 22 to find my ‘true love’. Or was he to find me? I wasn’t sure, but it better happen quickly. As much as I wanted to be a professional woman, there was no way I wanted to be alone. Romance and sexual arousal were twin cousins. Life was flat without both.

I expected that who ever this man was, who hadn’t appeared yet, would love me totally, as I would love him. That meant he would know how I ticked and would understand all aspects of my nature. When the right man came along and wasn’t thrilled with the dark poetry I had written as a teenager (who in their right mind would be thrilled with it) I was crushed and we almost broke up that night.

Oh, I had so many lessons to learn about romantic love! Many I have learned from being a psychologist, as human nature is a critical factor. Others I learned from living life. Stay tuned for some of them. Or better yet, read Next Year in Jerusalem! Part 1 and Part 2, to find out a lot about romantic love as you get to know Natalie and Maggie.

Tags: Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein, True Romance, True Romance Magazine