Love Denied

One of our Saudi colleagues is crushed by the prospect that he is not allowed to marry the woman he loves because of some arrangement with the tribes. As a non-Saudi, I don't know the mechanics to this whole thing, but I surmise it has to do with the "true" Arabs and "Arabized" peoples. I'm not certain if it has something to do with the Sunni/Shi'a sectarianism, and I'm too embarrassed to ask.

Or, for those who find it easier to put it in fictional terms, it's the Death Eaters opposing a marriage of a pureblood to a Muggle or Muggle-born.

I guess it's the same kind of torment in Indian society when one wants to pursue a "love-match" instead of marrying to secure social and financial respectability.

It's hard to say something about this. On the one hand, love is the single greatest ingredient to a successful marriage. On the other, who's to say that love is necessary to beget a marriage, and perhaps it's the other way around?

Still, if it were possible to rise as if on wings over these hurdles . . . yes, I believe I'd leave my colleague to dream and let that desire for love shape him as a sword through a forge. There is still that voice that whispers, the hope is still there.


WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER
(Words and Lyrics by Brian May / QUEEN)

There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing
That builds our dreams
Yet slips away from us?
Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever . . . . . ? Oh....

There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only
One sweet moment
Set aside for us

Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever . . . . . ? Oh....
Who dares to love forever . . .
Oh, when love must die?

But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips

And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today . . .

Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever?
Forever is our today . . .

Who waits forever anyway?

Postscript: When the first "Highlander" was released, I was 13 or so. I saw it on the big screen - I'm not sure if I watched it first with my parents or if my brother and I snuck away to watch it by ourselves, even though it was an R-rated film. I remember the song as "Heather's Theme" and until now it captures the bittersweetness of unfulfilled or unrequited love.

Now, time to decapitate a few people . . .