Romeo and Juliet: Love is in the Air!

Here's one of my favorite theatrical conversations about "the total agony" of being in love.  Check it out:


This scene absolutely got me as I was watching it during a long airplane ride. It brought back my own memory of being in sixth grade and falling completely head over heels passionately in love with Mindy, the smart girl who sat at my table in math class. She was always organized, always on time -- a complete contrast from me. We didn't speak much, but I borrowed her pencil every day. To borrow a phrase from James Joyce, my body was like a harp, and her words and gestures were like fingers on the strings. Every night I lay awake for what seemed like all night, unable to sleep, thinking about this girl nonstop. Back then when we would pair off, the word would be they were "going together." We couldn't, of course, "go" anywhere; most of us lived miles apart, and we didn't have any way to get to any place, and we weren't really old enough to go anywhere alone -- no money, no transport, no nothing... but that's what we called it. I lived further away from school than most, and every morning and afternoon I'd be last on the school bus. The bus driver -- Bruce -- and I had a delightful friendship. He'd ask me how it was going with Mindy, and I'd tell him and so on. Finally there was a middle school dance. She was on the student council and was organizing it, but I thought I'd ask her anyway, after all, that's what you do. So I surprised her one day in Math class, after borrowing her pencil: "Hey, you've received an invitation." "An invitation" "Yeah, to the dance. With me." I don't remember what she said, but I was convinced she was my date. During the dance, I found it very difficult to find her. And when I did, her rejection of me was kind, gentle, sweet, and utterly devastating.