The Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome

What's the craziest thing you've done lately?

After watching the 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde, I feel ecstatic (and prolly bored of myself). You have two young people (read: Clyde was 25 and Bonnie was 23 years old then), robbing banks and killing people all over Central America. They had the time of their lives--after all, they live in the Great Depression era where you see people living in their cars without a penny in their pockets while banks foreclosed all their belongings. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were AWESOME. But best of all, they were head-over-heels in love with each other. 

I always knew that their story was about two lovers-bandits-outlaws trying to emulate Jesse James in 20th Century America. But I didn't know how it really felt when I saw it in their eyes. (Ok, what I really saw were two great actors--Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty--acting as lovers. And when you have Hollywood hunk Warren and drop-dead-gorgeous Faye together in the silverscreen, it's not that hard to fall in love with their characters. But that's not my point.) Bonnie was, and if the script was at least half accurate, madly in love with Clyde. While Faye's physique (and looks) in this movie is somewhat distracting to my analysis of the love story, I concluded that what Bonnie and Clyde had was really special.

I am not writing this to offer a 40-year-delayed review of the Bonnie and Clyde film which is btw a thing of beauty. What I am most affected about is how the true story of Bonnie and Clyde were all about. Yes there were countless crazy things they've done during a 2-year hiatus of robberies, killings, and evasion from the law. Yes they were immortalized by what they did to rob banks, gas stations, grocery stores. But their true story was about love. Everything else they did were collateral damages. And for what it's worth I do hope most people find that type of love during these times. And if I have to be a criminal to find that feeling, I might still consider it. 

Funny thing is we do a lot of crazy things in life that we are aware about. Sometimes we're ashamed, most things we did we're not proud of. So I admire Bonnie's conviction to stay with Clyde--and as Jay-Z and Beyonce (circa 2003) woud put it, "all I need in this life of sin is me and my girlfriend... down to ride 'till the very end, it's me and my boyfriend." They lived a crazy life but they had one heck of a ride. And they were until their very deaths proud of it.

Those two died when they were around my current age. I can tell you now that I never robbed a bank (or a gasoline station), I never killed anyone (although I wouldn't be surprised to find out that most people have killed other people inside their heads and in their memories), I never evaded arrest (except maybe for a few MMDA/TMG traffic rule violations), but like most people I loved. I love. We love. 

It doesn't matter if we love ourselves, our careers, our families, friends, possessions, and all the worldly things. We love. And it gets crazy because love defies conventions and laws (exhibit A: Bonnie and Clyde). Love defies rationality. Love defies cultures, differences, dreams, plans, circumstances, adversities, diet, traffic rules, and even gravity. Even the Discovery Channel knows this. And when you think about it, love indeed conquers all. 

The only problem is if we loved ourselves too much. But that's another story right?

So to answer the question at the beginning of this post, I think it suffices to say that the craziest thing we did--all of us--lately is to love. Like I said, it doesn't matter who or what you loved. You just did. It is crazy. And (I hope I'm not being blasphemous by saying this) even God loves us even if it doesn't makes sense for us to be loved at all by Him (and I'm not saying God's crazy). We love. Period. Our lives are full of Bonnie and Clyde events. But I'm sure most of us just wish we could find love in another's eyes (this again is another story). 

Thanks to Bonnie and Clyde, now I realized so many things about love that I ruined my Saturday afternoon nap in the process. Cheers to one of the loveliest love story of all time (for me at least). For what it's worth, it makes me want to cry (want is the operative word here). 

Now that this is out of the way, let me get that well-deserved nap. Out.