Love is Senseless

You've heard that love is blind, but love is senseless too...especially when it comes to celebrity crushes and teen hormones. When you're 13, or let's be real—a lot older—you can have a crush on a celebrity without knowing a single REAL thing about them but doesn't make it any less REAL in your head or the emotions any less valid. Celebrity crushes are almost as ridiculous as this sketch I created (poking fun of the show “Love is Blind,” link attached).

When I was really young, I had a crush on Dimitri, the cartoon character from the 1997 film Anastasia. Let me repeat that: the CARTOON character. That is senseless but makes sense for a 5-year-old whose world revolves around cartoons and make believe. Blame it on the dramatics of Anastasia’s real-life story or the musical numbers, but Dimitri had a charming way about his cartoon self. As I grew a little older N’SYNC became active in my crush life (and every other girl in the early 2000s), especially Justin Timberlake and JC…what was his last name again? Apparently, it was such “real love” that I can’t even remember his last name now. Celebrity crushes are really just a crush on the idea of someone. We fill in the unknown facts and mysteries of that celebrity with all our hopes and dreams of romance. They are our escape when our parents just “don’t understand us” and when real middle school boys are too awkward to be crush-worthy. I’ve heard it said, “never meet your hero” and I would extend that to celebrity crushes. They will never live up to our hormonal teenage expectations or in my case, my childhood dreamworld.

The “Love is Senseless” film that I wrote might not be that far from reality after all. Some people know they’ve found the one without any logical reason. In the early 1950s my grandmother was at a glamorous cocktail party one evening when in walked my grandpa. Amongst the martinis and tool dresses my grandma leaned over to her friend and told her, “I’m going to marry that man.” She had never talked to him, touched him, or heard of him; she had only seen him from a distance and simply knew. How did she know? Senseless. My dad took my mom to Red Lobster for their first date and asked her to marry him THAT NIGHT. It was bold but it worked. Senseless.

So maybe celebrity crushes aren’t as crazy and silly as we think. Although none of the crushes turn into a real relationship (aside from our imaginations and Hallmark movies), they are one of the first experiences we have at senseless “love.” They allow us to dream about the possibilities of love. Yes, love is so much more than a crush, I think anyone who has cared for a family member or significant other when they’re sick or simply in bad mood can attest to this. But love is irrational. We do things we don’t understand or swear we’d never do for those we love. We shake our heads and say, “only for you.” I give up most of my ice cream to my nieces (and that’s saying a lot) just because I love them and can’t resist their smiles. I forget about the cleanliness of my clothes when a furry cuddly dog comes up to hug and lick me. I’ve gone completely out of my way to hopefully run into a crush. My sister gave me the last of her paycheck when I was in college so I could go to the movies with my friends. I woke up extra early instead of enjoying the sweetness of sleep to make my dad breakfast every morning the year before he passed away. Love doesn’t need to make sense for it to be powerful. Love is senseless but always worth it. Celebrity crushes are a rite of passage and a valid human experience however senseless they may seem.