Who doesn't love John Cusack?

Apparently I'm not the only one, according to this fun though rather meaningless story about his most-beloved character, Lloyd Dobler, from the 80's cult classic Say Anything.

And while the story itself is nothing more than some Valentinian fluff, I did find this quote about the appeal of Lloyd's character interesting:

"Fake love is a very powerful thing," Klosterman observes. "I once loved a girl who almost loved me, but not as much as she loved John Cusack. . . . It appears that countless women born between the years of 1965 and 1978 are in love with John Cusack. . . . But here's what none of these upwardly mobile women seem to realize: They don't love John Cusack. They love Lloyd Dobler. When they see Mr. Cusack, they are still seeing the optimistic, charmingly loquacious teenager he played in 'Say Anything.' . . .

While I doubt Mr. Klosterman, the author of the deeply reflective book Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, intended anything too significant in these comments, he is still able to capture quite a bit about how unhealthy idealism can stagnate relationships. I agree with him that fake love is a very powerful thing. It is also the thing that too often inhibts the real thing.

More often than not, we find we are not characters in a romantic comedy as much as we are broken people in broken relationships striving for something good, and maybe even glorious, despite the bumps and brusies along the way. Still, most of us would agree that despite their inevitable challenges, relationships, whether romantic or not, are better to have than not. I like how Jack Johnson says it in his song "Better Together:

Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Why are we here and where do we go
And how come it's so hard
It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thingIt's always better when we're together