Is Love Just a Memory?

I watched the end of my favorite TV show, Chuck, on Friday. I will not bore you with how emotional I have been or how depressed I was over the weekend. If you have ever loved a book series (cough-Harry Potter fans) you will understand.

What I want to talk about today is LOVE. 

What is that feeling that makes your heart pound, palms sweat and goose bumps to light up your spine? Oh wait, that’s lust. Or is it? Is love the emotional reaction to someone-the preverbal love at first sight? Or is it a compilation of memories that lead you to the decision to love someone. Isn’t that what the romance in a book is? A point by point catalogue of how they fell in love.

Let’s take a mother who gives her child up for adoption. She gets that call when the child is 18, they meet at a coffee shop. When she sees her child sitting across the room: her heart pounds, palms sweat and she loves the person sitting there. She doesn’t have to have a point by point memory of that child. She loves them.

But what if we flip this scenario? Said mom comes into a coffee shop and sits down at a table across from that same child but she has no knowledge of who they are. Then the child is just a stranger and the feelings of love do not present themselves.

I don’t want to give any spoilers away for the ending of Chuck for those of you who watch the show and haven’t seen the ending. But the scenario that plays out has a character losing their memory of the last 5 years of their life. The SAME 5 years the show was on. So every move that person made toward loving the other character was wiped away. 

Think The Notebook at the end, where Ally has Alzheimer’s. She can’t remember who is, so does she love him? Or the movie 50 First Dates. She never remembers but watches a video everyday so she can see the memories and realize each morning that she loves her husband and children.

Analyzing all of this WAY too much over the weekend really made me think about each scene I wrote in my WIP. How each moment was like a puzzle piece to the end result-LOVE. Which memories in your MC's life would a bad guy have to extract for them to completely lose the love they have their one true love? Those are the memories I'm going to write in WIP. 

I watched videos of my children. My son Noah being born, my older one meeting him for the first time, birthday parties, the first time they rolled over. They were all such precious memories and parts of the puzzle of my love for my children. Wipe them all away and the love is gone. Or is it? This is still the question. Is love strong enough to prevail?

Look at that brother love. They are so cute.

 So how are you crafting each little love puzzle piece? Each little moment. Like my older son blowing in his little brother’s face and making him do that baby belly laugh-such a small moment but so wonderful and a testament to how they love each other.