Love, constant across the years

I have "Sh-boom" stuck in my head thanks to Little Guy's Cars movie.  I love the cheery, romantic tone of the song.  In a lot of ways, I feel somewhat out of sync with the modern world.  While I'm not quite the pioneer my mom and sister are, in many ways I feel more in tune with bygone eras. 

A lot of that stems from my own romantic nature, I know.  Romantically, you picture the '50's as poodle skirts and milkshakes, low crime and suburban happiness.  Realistically, it was also the time of McCarthyism and racism.  And many "happy housewives" were housewives because they had no other options.  The Victorian era was also more than long skirts, roses, and the age of invention.  Illnesses ran rampant, Jack the Ripper plied his trade, and workers' rights were non-existent. 

The sad fact is I would probably feel I fit in just as well there as I feel I do here.  As I told Big Guy yesterday, humanity hasn't progressed as much as we like to think we have.  Shakespeare wrote a play entitled "Titus Andronicus" whose storyline would definitely be on par with a movie like "Saw".  However, because it's written by Shakespeare, people tend to discount the sensational aspect, forgetting that the man was an entertainer of the masses.  People have always loved a good, gory, revenge story. Literature has always been a reflection of humanity and what it enjoys. 

I suppose, though, that is also why one of the biggest selling genres has been romance.  Everyone, despite the enjoyment of the illicit and the gruesome, also enjoys the idea of love, true love, overcoming all odds.  I think even men have romantic sides, even if it isn't as well developed as women's romantic sides. I know Big Guy does, and every man I've dealt with has always tried to impress or "woo" the woman into believing them the best. They write poems, pick flowers, or compose songs to convince the woman that she is, in their eyes, perfect. And that is something that seems to have stretched across every era. 

I guess love truly is a universal language.