Fools for Love

 by C. Margery Kempe

Happy April Fools Day: the traditional time of jokes and spoofs to amuse or annoy everyone around you. People who never indulge in practical jokes the rest of the year often find themselves thinking about ways to fool one another. Legs will be pulled, yarns will be spun.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

William Shakespeare

Many consider those in love to be fools. That's what keeps them from the fray. I know many folks who despair at ever finding love, or at finding again once they've lost it. There's no real secret to it, though many have made themselves rich writing self-help books suggesting men and women are from different planets or that there are a lot of rules that need to be maintained in order to find romantic success. One writer even suggests that you can learn it all from romance novels!

The truth is you just need to be willing to risk it: to be willing to look a fool. So many people are afraid to try, especially if they have lost at love. A heart with scars is more healthy than one that has never felt the cut of disappointment: hardier and more flexible. The fairy tales we are told of love have to give way to the messy reality of it, but it doesn't usually happen without some pain and error. Anything worth doing well takes practice (like sex, a related topic). We cannot love well without learning how it is done. Some people are lucky enough to grow up with good role models — parents who love one another and show it, families that are happy — but a lot of the world learns from bad examples.

Even with the best intentions we make mistakes. Not everyone has good intentions: some see love as a game or a competition. They fear falling themselves, so they try to push others instead. It can all go wrong, but that's the price we pay. You can only learn by doing; you cannot have the joys of love if you do not risk your heart. As frightening has heartbreak can be, it is not as bad as living without love or the possibility of love.

Be a fool: risk it.

I'm thinking about this because I'm in the middle of writing the sequel to Chastity Flame. After finding love in the first book, Chastity has tried to convince herself that she can do without love. Given the choice to give up her life as a secret agent — the only life she's known — or else give up love, she's decided it has to be love that she relinquishes. But can she stick with that decision? She's finding it more and more difficult every day.

At the swanky Hotel G in Galway

Filed under: C. Margery Kempe, Characters, contemporary romance, Emotions, erotic romance, inspiration, Kit Marlowe, Romance suspense, What Are You Reading?, What inspires you?, Writer's Life, Writing Topics