Will we always have Paris? And is really love all you need?

‘Where I’m going you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.’

And so Ilsa left, she left the man she loved because it was the right thing to do, because staying would maybe have ruined both of them, she left because he made her leave.  He made her leave because he wanted her happiness more than his own.  But was it right?  If he truly loved her would he not have done everything possible to be with her?

The Beatles eloquently (and profitably) once said that ‘Love is all you need’, but is it?  Should Ilsa have stayed if Rick was the love of her life, should she have given up Victor and his cause for love?  Should Rick have told her to stay?

I use to be pragmatic when it came to love, in traditional romantic comedies I never quite understood why the princess would choose the pauper, why the little mermaid left all her friends in the sea for love, would they not regret it in the end?  Was the sacrifice worth it?  Would it not ruin everything in the end?

I have no real answer to any of these things, I can say, from my own experience that being in love is wonderful, but being in an impossible love, as true as that love can be, makes me wonder if it’s worth it?  

What if you offered to give everything up for someone and that someone said that despite their love for you, they didn’t see how to build a life together due to various factors, other current relationships, social or financial differences, world war two secret agents in Casablanca, and my personal favourite…. Distance.  Does that mean they love you any less? Or are they just thinking of your best interest in the end (and theirs). And what do you do?  Do you follow Victor and lose the love of your life and maybe regret it for the rest of your life or do you stay with Rick, the love of your life, and maybe end up regretting it?

When it comes to love, how are we really supposed to act?  Rational or passionate?  Careful or willing to put it all out there knowing it might make us suffer?