Forget the fireworks, just give me honesty

So I'm sitting at Wednesday's "Patriots Got Talent" contest, listening to the numerous individual performances of original love songs and love poems when I started thinking: I don't want their kind of love.

I enjoy a good love poem, and love songs are great and all.

And the girls these songs and poems are dedicated to are very lucky indeed.

But I wouldn't want to be with a guy who only wanted to serenade me with a guitar and recite the poetry I allegedly inspired in him.

I guess I think it's all too mushy. Too cliché. Too overly passionate.

Frankly the tall, dark Humphrey Bogart look-alike would just seem too awkwardly unreal.

I know other women are thinking I'm crazy, but hear me out.

My Grandma and Grandpa Moore had been married for 49 years when Grandpa finally lost his battle with cancer.

Since his death, I've often looked back on their marriage, and it's funny the things I remember.

There is no dishwasher in the house they shared together for more than 30 years.

So every night after dinner, Grandma was at the sink, gently scrubbing her plates to a clean perfection.

Grandpa stood beside her, carefully taking each dish, each piece of flatware, and drying it with a towel before placing it in its designated spot.

There the two of them stood, silently performing the chore every single evening.

Much of their marriage operated in this quiet routinely fashion.

They watched the same game shows together each afternoon.

Grandpa drove during every road trip as Grandma effectively navigated their car map.

They sat side by side with his right arm draped around her at every Saturday afternoon mass.

And despite all the years they had spent with one another, they still walked beside each other hand in hand.

And that's the kind of love I hope for.

A love with a simple, quiet, honest man, where days are spent wrapped in the comforts of a routine. I want a man who knows from the start there will be bumps in the road but is already prepared to work through them.

I want a man who laughs with me when I make mistakes because he doesn't see me as some great superior being.
He sees me as human.

I want a man whose best qualities are the honesty he has with me and the strong values he tries to implement into our relationship.

And so what if he's not great at fulfilling the role of Casanova.

I don't care if he rolls his eyes and groans every time I suggest a romantic activity, because I'll know he'll do it anyway to make me happy.

See it's those little things, those little gestures that mean more to me than all the original poetry he could write.

I don't need all the fireworks love songs. And I don't care if the man I fall for can't sing or write poetry.

Because all I want is that silent mutual understanding of lasting love and commitment.