- [first lines]
- C.S. Lewis: Why am I so afraid? I never knew that love could hurt so much. Yet I love you, and all I want is to love you. Beyond every door, I hear your voice saying to me, 'This is only the land of shadows. Real life hasn't begun yet.'
- C.S. Lewis: You enter the garden. Inside there is a fountain. Inside the fountain lie two crystal stones. You look into the stones, and there you'll see, in perfection, another garden: a rose garden! In the midst of the roses, there grows one beautiful rosebud. You're filled with longing for this rosebud. You stretch out one hand and pluck the bud! Not exactly real life, is it? This is Guillaume de Lorris' allegorical description of the experience of falling in love from the "Roman de la Rose". Now, the question I want to put to you is: Is it true? Is this real life? Now, before you jump to the obvious conclusion, ask yourself a further question: Which is more real -- falling in love, or picking a rose?