Imaginative Dispostion, Creative Pleasures

I thought I would post most of an email that I sent to a very dear friend of mine tonight...sort of my thoughts and theories on love stories. :)

Alright, so I just got home from watching Pride and Prejudice with my roommates, and I have to admit that unlike most girls I have never seen the longer version or read the book (though I feel I must now go read it).

I loved that movie. I loved everything about it. I was shaking with excitement when it was all over. Having not any clue as to the story plot going into it tonight I was taken away with the language and beauty of it all. I want that. I want all of that. That happiness. Anyhow, I fear I am now the same sentimental fool that every girl I’ve met seems to be about this story, but it was unavoidable. It is funny how watching two people fall so deeply in love can be so rewarding even if it is just a fanciful fairytale.

My father was telling me tonight that my serotonin levels must be low as I was telling him how I've been in an emotional slump lately. He said that someone did a study about the effects of doing good deeds, service, kind words and such on an individual physically, and they found that when you do something good for someone else that the serotonin levels in your brain increase causing a sense of well being and actually making you a healthier person. The person that you did the good deed for also receives an increase in serotonin as well as (and here’s the interesting part) any observers of the situation. Now…this is my theory, that this is why we love feel good movies and why watching a “chick flick” or a truly delightful love story can make us feel so deliciously delightful inside. Honestly, even now, I am completely tickled.

I love being happy. How silly that a movie could produce such an effect…but all the same it did. My roommate said that watching something like that makes her just a little bit sad that she does not have someone…but I find it quite the contrary in effect. I feel so wonderfully hopefully about life. The movie may be fiction…but the underlying story, the idea of true love is so very real. It whisked me off to another world and when it brought me back left me with a hint of magic. The kind of magic you find in catching a glimpse of a shooting star overhead or the perfect moment when the sun setting casts the most calming shades of reds, oranges, and purples across the horizon or delightfulness of a evening walk with a very good friend… How enchanting are the small things, the moments nearly missed, the magic all around us.