The Roman-Greek Effect

Written by Lydia on May 17, 2012

TOPIC: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

Is it possible to know that you love someone from a single glance? Can we see someone and, from that moment on, feel a selfless pull to provide for them and contribute to their happiness?

My answer is no. My reasoning behind this is that, by simply having someone’s image in your head for a split second, you can’t possibly feel a definite love for them. You can’t know and accept everything they are; you can’t imagine a realistic future together. You can’t reminisce on the tiny little nuances about them like the absurd dreams they have at night or the way they only enjoy butter-free popcorn. Those last two were just examples, but my point is that you can’t love them because at the first moment you look at them, whether you’re secretly stealing this glance or whether their eyes are meeting yours, you don’t know them.

Maybe love at first sight isn’t possible, but “like” at first sight is. It’s very possible that you see someone, and upon seeing them, you feel an instant attraction. It’s very possible that you long to know them better and you become infatuated with the person standing (or sitting or walking or running) before you. That’s very possible, and I don’t think it’s outrageous to say that it happens everyday all over the world.

Another thing that is very possible is the case of “like” at first sight that turns into love. Perhaps after you felt an immediate attraction toward them, you approached that person and asked their name. Had a conversation. Asked them out on a date and a year later you get married to the person you never thought you’d meet in aisle six of the grocery store or the mall parking lot. I think situations like this lead us to believe in love at first sight, when in reality, it was a firm attraction at first sight. That’s what people are chasing these days— the unshakeable attraction at first sight, because maybe that unshakeable attraction is the closest to truly loving someone they’ve ever been. This world, with its romantic comedies and how-to guides to dating, is centered around finding “the one.” And in a world like this, it’s rather comforting to think that we can accomplish that by just opening our eyes.

Written by Lydia on May 16th, 2012

Luke and I decided that we’d like to supplement our regular written blog posts with video blogs YouTube. He sometimes has trouble putting his thoughts on paper, and I sometimes (more often than not,) have trouble putting mine in spoken words. We also decided to post those video blogs to Tumblr as well as YouTube so people wouldn’t have to bounce around the internet searching for us. Sometimes these videos will be about random topics such as love, comedy, etc., and sometimes they’ll be question and answer sessions.

Also, if you want to suggest a topic or submit questions for our written blog or our video blog, feel free to email us at theromangreekeffect@gmail.com. Please do specify how you want your topic/question addressed in the email!

Written by Lydia on May 15, 2012

TOPIC: ANCESTRY

I have never been able to empathize with people’s interests in their lineage and places of origin. It’s not something I’m bitter about, but it’s not something I really care a great deal about either. Certain interests I can understand, though; for example, if a child is adopted into a family of a different ethnicity than his own, he might feel the need to discover where he originally came from to find some peace of mind. Another case would be one similar to mine (but I’ve never found myself in it as of yet). If someone is a half-breed of two different ethnicities, one of which is the norm of the area and the other originates on the other side of the globe, then I could possibly understand that person having an interest in the latter half’s culture, provided that it has a profound effect on how that person was raised or how they go about their daily life. I’m sure there are many other situations that would fit my criteria of being reasonable, but I would currently rate myself as being a pretty high level of sick right now, so you’ll have to excuse my non-thoroughness.

The mere curiosity of one’s origin, that’s always excusable in my book. Sure, curiosity may have killed the cat, but it probably won’t kill you because you’re a human (if you’re a cat, I applaud you for reading this). However, one thing that does get on my nerves is when people believe they are entitled to certain treatment or have a monopoly on certain skills or talents because they’re 1/32nd (insert race or Amerindian tribe here). A person is a person. Two people might have completely different ancestries yet still have a plethora of things in common. It’s also true that two people might have parallel heritages and find that they are nothing alike, save a similar lineage. Ancestry tells us who came before us, but I don’t think it has much to do with who will come after us or who we will become. I’m a firm believer in the idea that we can be whoever we want regardless of who our parents were or who their parents were or who their parents might’ve been. As long as there’s a possibility that anyone can break the mold, change, or be someone new, there’s hope of better things to come. Who wouldn’t want to believe in that?

I’m Lydia. I make up the “Greek” half of this Roman-Greek Effect, and my friend, Luke, makes up the former. We both have a shared love of writing, and we also enjoy to dig a little deeper into ideas than we often get the chance to do in everyday conversation. These common interests led Luke to find us an outlet for them. The basic rules are that at least once a week we’ll both come up with a topic we want to write about and flip a coin to decide which topic gets picked. Luke came up with this idea 1. to cure boredom, 2. because he found he quite liked Tumblr, and 3. to give us both a chance to get our ideas down and know they are being read by at least one other person. Teenagers seem to have fallen under this stigma of being apathetic and thoughtless, but I think The Roman-Greek Effect was also devised to show that not everyone will live up to their stereotypes. We may not be the smartest young adults out there, but we are not the dumbest, either. I think I can also speak for both of us when I say we care. We care about life, the future, the universe, and the afterlife. If this blog does not show that fact in its whole entirety, then you’ll have to take my word for it. Not all teenagers are mindless, and I hope our writings are proof.