Oh Disney, you lying bastard

Valentine's Day is approaching--or Single's Awareness Day, whatever you like to call it--and the feeling of love is in the air.

But also bitterness. I'm sensing a lot of bitterness--you know who you are ladies (and gentlemen perhaps?).

There's a lot of jaded, cynical, and bitter feelings on the topic of romantic love--and I've gotta say that in most situations, I'm a pretty jaded, cynical and bitter person (even though I like the term "realist" better). But for once, I like to think I'm an optimist when it comes to love (Wow. I think I even made myself gag with that comment).

We feel like we've been lied to this whole time about love. And we all know who we have to blame.

DISNEY.

We love to whine and complain about how Disney destroyed our chance of having healthy relationships because we've been fed this impossible dream of what love really is. That we're all waiting for Prince Charming to sweep us off our feet and that love will make everything perfect forever. And when that doesn't happen, we feel Disney betrayed us!

But perhaps we're simply wanting to blame someone for our misconceptions of love. I think we are very hard on love and what we expect it to bring. Which leads us wanting to salvage every relationship so badly that we refuse to let go. We blame love, we blame ourselves, we blame Disney.

I think we need a better understanding of love, or we are going to be constantly let down. We expect love to fix our problems, our insecurities, and our fears. We need it to step up and hold us together when we're on the verge of falling apart.

And in a way, love does do this--I've said previously that love is the "undying connection we find ourselves locked in with each other" (yeah, I just quoted...myself. I feel a mix of pride and narcissism).

I couldn't live without love. In fact, I love love. I love my family, I love my friends, I love my dog, and I love my unnatural love for Jon Stewart. But I also have a fear of love, that some kinds of love--the love that leaves you blinded and giddy--will drop right our from under me and leave at a moment's notice.

We need to accept that things change, and celebrate that. We need to accept love wherever we can find it, even it it's not exactly how we envisioned it.

Because when you lose one source of love, you've gotta know where else to find it.

Disney taught me to love love. But then I grew up and realized that maybe the way Disney portrays love isn't exactly like real life. But that doesn't mean that love ain't there.