Lori Duff Writes

I saw La Boheme at the Atlanta Opera the other night.[1]  La Boheme, by Giacomo Puccini[2] is one of the most popular operas and likely, even if you hate opera, some of it would sound familiar to you.

Like most operas, the plot is stupid.  Here it is in a cynical nutshell:  four young men live together in a broke-down flat in Paris in the 1840s.  They fancy themselves artists[3] and are your stereotypical starving artists.  What money they do get, they immediately eat and drink up.  They fall in love instantaneously and for the wrong reasons.  Because there are no antibiotics, people die of consumption.  There’s more to it, but not much more.

I loved it.

It got me to thinking.  La Boheme is really about love, and how only the young[4] can feel and act with such passion.  The characters don’t worry about such things as the future because they aren’t really sure it exists.  They don’t worry about mortality, because they believe both that they are immortal and also that life is a fleeting thing that they should grab with both hands and wring every bit of hedonistic joy out of that they can.

I thought about my own impetuous youth and wondered if I ever lived like that.

I decided I didn’t. 

I’ve always been a planner.  Always worried about what would happen six or seven steps down the pike.  I started saving for retirement at the age of twenty-three. 

So then I asked myself: did I miss out?  What did I miss by failing to jump headlong into love? I think I only missed out on a lot of heartache, and possibly a case of the crabs. I guess I’ll never know, and I’m okay with that.  Sure, I tested my boundaries when I was in my early twenties, but I found out that my boundaries were fairly circumscribed.  I’m good with sobriety and monogamy and early bedtimes.  If you’re not?  Well, consenting adults and all of that.  I don’t much care what you do on your own time.   

Just, do me a favor.  Can you write a good song about it?

[1] Technically, the other afternoon.  I have become old enough that I don’t like staying out late, so I prefer the afternoon matinee. 

[2] Isn’t that fun to say?  JOCK-oh-mow poo-CHEE-knee

[3] Or should I say artEEstes?

[4] And, dare I say, naïve?

If you enjoyed this and want to read more like it, visit Lori on Twitter or on Facebook or read her award winning books.  You can order her novella, “Broken Things”, by clicking here.  The audiobook can be found on Audible or iTunes.  Look for her novel “Devil’s Defense” coming in November 2024 from She Writes Press.

Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.