I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately- and I’m pretty corny! I’m sappy, nostalgic and overly romantic. My wife has known this all along, and for the most part is cool with it. Grand statements of Utopian ideals easily come to me, while Miki has the restraint to temper such things.
So this has me thinking- concepts such as love, peace, grace, etc. Are they corny? Love is a simple thing if you think about it. You don’t work for love- it just happens. This high ideal of love, when put into literature or song all of the sudden becomes something that we can’t help but laugh at or smirk at or gesture like we’re going to vomit. Why is that?
When I think about it, only a few people in history has gotten away with talking about these grand ideals without ending up the laughing stock of their generation. Two pop culture icons come to mind: John Lennon and Bono (and Bono may be a stretch with some of his lyrics as of late). The biggest one of them all though, was Jesus.
So if we are to be like Jesus, why can’t we appreciate the elegant simplicity of Love? Is it because we as a culture have grown so cynical? Is it that we got hurt along the way, and are protecting ourselves through jokes? Look around, some of the best dramatic actors in the world these days came from a comedic background. Laughing through the pain is a common approach. Does it make us angry that a poet or a songwriter would want to take us down this path? I honestly can’t put my finger on it.
I know I get embarrassed when I realize that I’ve written something corny like that- even if its truth. I write things that I would personally make fun of if I saw it for sale in a store!
So am I wrong to be so corny? Should I back off the language and find a hipper way to say the same thing? Or should I just bite the bullet and say what I was inspired to say in the first place?
Besides, what better way to say I love you, than… I love you?
