Rama's Last Act and Loneliness

I will actually depart from my usual choice of blog post and talk about real life.

I found it utterly bittersweet to read Rama's Last Act and I absolutely sympathized with the agony and desolation of Rama and Sita because I am currently on the second year of a long distance relationship. And this is a long distance highschool-to-college  relationship, which means that people have the unhelpful tendency of telling you how often that kind of relationship fails. But, oh, I do understand the precious nature of a moment together, a touch of a hand--I understand the sadness of seeing a place without the person that should be there with you. Now, fortunately I am not going into a ten year separation and the beloved (who happens to be Indian) is not casting me off in any form or fashion. But there is a timeless pain in the idea of being separated from those we love, and the lines about love being filled with hurt, about love being wanting, needing to have someone beside you, resonated with me.

In an era of Skype there is no need for river or forest goddesses to comfort me, and I do my best to avoid swooning. Yet, when I am just back from a weekend where I get to see the heart of my heart, knowing I won't see him again for another month, it was painful to read this text. At least here we had a happy ending, and I hope for that in my life as well.