Dan in Real Life or Baby, I Love Your Way

Nick Hornby made it pretty clear in High Fidelity that it's not cool to like the song "Baby, I Love Your Way." If you listen to the lyrics, it's nonsensical. It's not a ballad and there's not a story-line to the song. The guitar riff is popular because it's catchy and relatively easy to play, but, among pop aficionados, it's uninspired.

The thing is, I love it, which is to say that I'm exactly like 98 percent of the population.

That chorus line gets me every time. Anybody who's ever been in love knows what it means to "Love [someone's] way." It's intangible. It's that unknown element that never ceases to surprise. It's each and every indescribable piece of your lover that somehow makes them irresistible. And, though indescribable, you can probably break them down into the lovably mundane.

Like Jess' freckles. They just floor me. I can't get enough of them. Or, how she won't sleep without socks on. And, how she will give one cute little sneeze at the end of any chocolate eating session. She'll eat an entire bowl of chocolate ice-cream and only give one little sneeze when she's finished; she'll do the same thing even if it's just one itty-bitty Andes Mint. It drives me nuts, but I love it.



Billy puts it another way: "She's got a way about her. I don't know what it is, but there doesn't have to be a reason anyway." Because, and for me this is the rub, "reasons" aren't enough to give yourself over to someone. They're important, but alone, they're not enough. It's the many little inexpressable somethings that kind of work as the emotional glue for all of the reasons why you're with someone. It's the way they wink, or the unique warmth of their hug -- it's that something that nobody else but you sees.

This isn't to be confused with teenage angst like in this clip from Dan in Real Life:



Dan can't be more right. For every one of the reasons you can find to love someone, you can probably find just as many reasons to not love them. "Love is an ability," he says. That teenage ball of emotions that his daughter portrays is a part of it too, but it's a small part, and it's unsustainable.

I don't know how to end this post. I'll probably come back later and change it. I miss Jess and her freckles. I mean, they're totally hoppin' and they just drive me up the wall.