When it comes to the love between a man and woman, what is romance?

I had an opportunity to attend my older niece’s senior piano recital yesterday. An absolutely lovely experience. All of her pieces were well-done. But the one that she seemed most at home with and the one she had memorized was Romance Op. 24 No. 9 by Sibelius. (Recording of another young pianist playing the same piece can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtxf8OT6z-U)

While I listened to her play this moving piece for the second time, my mind wandered to pose and answer the initial question.

I have heard some people use romantic to describe a type of atmosphere that makes everything cozy. And others have used romance to refer specifically to aphrodisiacs and only physical passion. Still others envision this term as the best of all that is airbrushed in the world of dreams and ideals.

But as I listened to Emma move from one measure to the next and heart-fully spill out Sibelius’s composition, I saw in my mind’s eye something more.

I think that true romance is the soft beauty of first, sweet attraction – and the pure core of devoted other-awareness that remains true when the storms of life blow over…or sometimes when those storms seem like they are stuck and will never leave us truly in peace.

Part way thought the piece, there is a clash, a crash, and a point where it seems like the piano is broken. And then, majestically, the beauty of the initial soul-theme returns to ride atop the last wind gusts at storm’s end. And finally, the bit of love’s first blush floats away in conclusion like a soft kiss offered in the light of a heart-melting sunset.

Such romance is more than eros. It morphs into agape. Or…perhaps…it was rooted in agape in the first place. For no other bond and type of love will ever be so beautiful, nor so persevering.