One of my favorite groups of the 1980s is Survivor, known mostly for the “Eye of the Tiger,” the Rocky anthem. My favorites, however, are “The Search Is Over” and “High on You.”
In an earlier blog, I wrote about sticking to your own kind. In a sense, sticking to one’s own kind is an impossibility. When Cupid’s arrow is unleashed, there “ain’t nothing you can do.” (Bob Seger) Why? Who knows? It’s just that: “There you stood; that will teach you to look so good and feel so right. Such complete intoxication, I ‘m high on you.”
Have you ever really done couple watching and wondered, “What the hell?” How could that woman ever have ended up with that man? What did he ever see in that woman to be attracted to her? Just as an aside, I know people’s looks change as we age, but there always remains a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ that continues the attraction.
I’ll never forget when I was introduced to a neighbor and his wife. Without skipping a beat, the man said, “This is Mary Lou; she didn’t look like this when I married her.” I could only think while looking at his beer belly and receding hairline that he didn’t either. Yet they remained together and appeared genuinely happy with each other. Why?
Smitten – those of us who have been, need no definition of that word. Smitten connotes a sense of helplessness infused by the arrow of love. As Survivor so emphatically stated, “Now I look into your eyes, and I can see forever; the search is over.”
Despite financial obstacles, condemnation by parents and society, you love who you love. Those five words, ”the search is over,” defy any rational thinking. Despite life’s disappointments and physical changes, love survives. Maybe that’s why my favorite group of the 1980s took that name, Survivor. I was smitten by them back then and still love their music today.
But more importantly, “there you stood,” dear Joan, “the search was over,” and “there ain’t nothin I can do about it.”
Smitten: December 1982
Still smitten September 16, 2017
Happy 34th wedding anniversary!
