Evening star., 1942-01-21

To Indicate
True Love
Each Person Must
Try to Analyze
His Emotions
By Dorothy Dir

= W =
His Emotions
BY Dorothy Div
How much love does it take to
marry on? No question is asked me
oftener than this. and it is strange
question because it would seem that
it is one to which each individual
mans and Woman's heart should be
able to unerringly give its own
answer. But while science has de-
viSed lie dectector and an instru-
ment for determining our blood
pressure, human ingenuity has never
invented a gadget that will measure
the amount and strength of our
emotions. We have all known
couples who started out in marriage
billionaires in love-if there is a
price ticket on romance-Who went
bankrupt within few years. We
have seen those who thought they
could not live without each other
find out that they could not live
with each other. And most OF US
have suffered from attacks of the
tender passion from which We re-
covered SO completely that We cam
not recall just what allied us, or
how We happened to catch ii. and
from whom. Hence it is no wonder
that SO many people are unable TO
diagnose their symptoms when they
begin to have jittery feelings about
some woman or man and wonder
whether what is indicated in their
case is bicarbonate Of soda or
marriage license. So the optimistic,
who believe that love is enough. rush
into marriage when they are so
young they do not know what they
are going to want in q wife or hus-
band and before they have enough
money 70 buy the beans to keep
romance from starving to death,
and they furnish never-ending
supply of griSt for the divorce mill.
And we have the prudent, who
cannot determine whether they
have what it takes or not, who sit
shivering on the brink of marriage
without ever screwing up enough
courage to take the plunge. and
they furnish the ever-increasing
number of old maids and bachelors
in our midst.
The trouble seems to be that we
get all of our ideas about love from
novels and the movies. Both of
them are unreliable authority, and
for the ordinary person to try TO
live up to their ideals would be as
ridiculous as it would be for a busy
housewife to cook breakfast and
do the family washing attired in a
white satin negligee trimmed in
ostrich feathers, or grocery clerk
to go to work in Romeo costume.
Nevertheless. there are plenty of
plain, practical men and women
who co apply these cinema and
sixth-best seller tests of love to
their affections. and because they
do not thrill and palpitate at the
sound of footstep and only know
of burning kisses by hearsay. they
conclude that they are not in love
and turn down the highly eligible
and companionable meE and women
of whom they are very fond and
who would make them happy homes
and splendid mates.
1t is pathetic to think of the
many people who waste their lives
in loneliness waiting for the i'm
possible to happen to them. For
they will never thrill and 60 hot and
cold at the sound of any voice. No
fairy prince o. princess will, ever
come riding down their street on a
milk-white steed They are as in
capable of a spectacular love as they
are of singing in grand opera.
Their love is nothing to write a
song about or make picture Of
but it is the sort of love that en-
dures long after the exotic emotion
has evaporated into thin air.
And so I would urge the boys
and girls, and especially the middle
aged men and women. who do not
know whether they love enough to
risk marriage with some man OF
woman whom they admire and re-
spect and whose society they enjoy
not to apply the Hollywood test to
their feelings, but practical one.
If you are a man and you feel
that everything is all right with
the world when Mary is around and
everything is wrong when She isn't;
if you feel that you want to roll up
your sleeves and 60 to work to
give her things, and if you want
to protect her and stand between
her and the hardShips of life; or, il
you are woman and want to
mother John: if his faults are dearer
to you than any other mans virtues.
If you never get tired of hearing
him talk about himself and his
hopes and plans, and If you are
always worrying about whether he
gets enough to eat and whether he
has holes in his socks and If he
wraps up his throat when 1t is
cold, then be assured you are In
love, no matter whether you have
heart failure or not when you see
him coming down the street. You've
got enough love to marry on.