In a recent "Vancouver Sun" article about the top movies of the past decade (2000-2009), the following comment was made about "Brokeback Mountain," the #4 selection, initially seen as a "gay cowboy movie:" "Brokeback earns a place on the list for a few reasons, not the least of which is Heath Ledger's heartbreaking performance as a young man who discovers love in an unlikely place [December 18, 2009, p. D4]." Of course, that unlikely place was in the form of another man, Jack Twist, played compellingly by Jake Gyllenhaal.
Do any of us know for sure where we'll find love? If we're men, can we say for sure we'll never find love with another man? If we're women, can we say for sure we'll never find love with another woman?
Can we say for sure that the greatest love we'll ever find will be with someone of the opposite sex?
How many people have found love with someone of the same sex, only to deny it because it didn't fit our culture's mould of what's right? Wouldn't it be ironic if we were straight, found love with someone of the same sex, denied it because it was unacceptable to us, yet never found the same love with someone of the opposite sex? Ironic is one word; tragic is another. If that happened, could we say that that was right, that we followed the right path, that we did the right thing, and that we're happy with our choice?
I know someone who, for many years, thought that he was straight, expected to marry a woman, have children, do the straight thing, just like most other men do. Today, well into mid-life, he's with another man. Over the past number of years, they've built a life together. They share a mortgage, a home, and everything else. He would be the first to tell you that he never expected this to happen to him. Their relationship isn't perfect--whose is? But there is something between them that he couldn't get from his past relationships with women, something that holds them together.
I believe it's love.
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