Bob CollinsIs love really blossoming in the abundance suggested by Jumbotrons across America? Or is there just good money in it?
The Georgetown Hoyas give us a clue with their announcement this week that they’re selling “proposal packages” to the upcoming season of basketball games.
Packages start at just $100 to make a big deal out of life’s tender moments.
The Minnesota Twins, by the way, charge $77 for scoreboard messages proposing marriage or anything else. That’s without all the additional hoopla, like this:
In an article today clearly aimed at the men who are insisting on these public displays of affliction, Claire McNear of The Ringer, begs them to stop.
I get it: You like your partner and you like sports. Maybe your partner likes sports, too! How wonderful. You have so much in common. You’ll be very happy together.
Here’s the thing, though: Unlike the audience at your wedding — there will be a wedding, by the way, your darling said yes, awwww, big kiss — the crowd at a sporting event does not know you.
Your fellow attendees weren’t proud of you when you graduated or signed your first lease, or quietly pleased when you broke up with Angie, who was just so bad for you, honestly. They have literally never wished for you to end up with someone nice. I’m sorry to break it to you, but they just don’t care.
But now here you are, trapping them in your display. One minute they’re in the midst of their own days with people they have chosen to spend at least a regulation period of eternity with, and then suddenly they’re staring, confused, into someone else’s camera as the people in front of them recite long, nervous speeches and then make out.
This applies to some degree to all public proposals — and I recognize that you have to lay your rose petals and votive candles down somewhere. But must you do it in a place where people have bought tickets to do something else?
Is it really necessary to leap between the half-empty cups of light beer and the bags of stale kettle corn and say actually, this is all for me and my honey, and how convenient that you’re all already facing our way?
There were five proposals involving athletes at the Summer Olympics in Rio. This prompted The Guardian’s marriage writer to ponder where’s the best place to make a proposal?
It’s your couch, guys.
Passion, drama and fireworks, literal and figurative, can make a relationship more exciting. Yet I believe true love comes when you’re with the one person you adore doing nothing with. If you start with an elaborate, expensive proposal, you’re setting the bar very high. Anyone can seem fun and thrilling if they’re sending you endless roses and whisking you away in helicopters. It’s much harder to find a person who can make you as happy just by sharing a takeaway with you. Every sofa has a history, and if yours can tell your love story, I think it might be the most romantic place possible to ask your partner to marry you.
(h/t: Paul Tosto)
