The absence of a HEA doesn’t always mean, Unhappily Ever After.

HEA- happily ever after. Why is it a prerequisite for romance novels?

Many Nicolas Sparks books do not have the typical happy ending. The most famous and compelling love story of all time ends with a dagger to the heart. Doesn’t sound too happy to me.

The greatest love story I’ve read in the past two years ended the way life intended for the main characters, parting ways and living their lives. Their love never faded, never changed. Instead, it remained a still frame in a moment of time when life brought them together. Though, the uncharacteristic aspects of life also kept them from obtaining their HEA. Beautiful, nonetheless.

I play the cynic and tout that I no longer believe in love and that soul mates live at the end of the rainbow. Life makes me the cynic. We move through space and time, meeting many people. Sometimes we are touched in unexplainable ways by a person who may be, dare I say, our soul mate, only at the wrong continuum on the timeline.

Does it mean we should devalue our current relationships or ignore the responsibilities of life simply because we are the lucky one to finally tread the color spectrum and reach the prize? Who ever said our soul mate needs to be a lover, and not just a friend?  In fact, there isn’t a steadfast rule stating we can only have one soul mate.

Can you remember your first kiss, your first love, or the one that got away? Our hearts are capable of carrying them with us forever. I believe having the memories instead of the person, in no way devalues their importance in our lives. The only way their prevalence diminishes, is if we never met them, never experienced their beauty. The adage comes to mind, it’s better to seek, have, and lose love, than to never have loved at all.

Which brings me back to the beginning and the pain and tears caused by a less than typical happy ending. The epic love of Romeo and Juliet has never been questioned, and they die in the end. The book I mentioned earlier as my favorite these past couple years, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, ends with a rightness that is the undeniable musing of life. Yes, the story could have ended, ‘And they lived happily ever after.’ Though, the unmistakable brilliance of the story would have been diluted and the author would not have shown respect for the plot and characters at that time in their lives.

Sometimes the ending is painful and makes you cry, but is also beautifully poignant and telling of our ability to love and fall in love throughout our lives. Possibly the ending could celebrate our capacity to make the difficult choices for everyone involved, because a happy ending may take the hue of many colors.