Romance lives

Larry was after only one woman, his estranged wife. But the Orlando man's remorseful and romantic full-page personal ad in a Florida newspaper this past week seemed to charm the world.

There was no immediate word on whether it melted his wife's heart, but there are now millions of people around the world pulling for "Lovelorn Larry."

Some were just swept off their feet by the sheer magnitude of his gesture: The full-page spread in the Florida Times Union cost $17,000.

But regardless of the cost, people simply want to believe in romance. They want it for themselves, and they want it for others. They even want it for those self-absorbed, spoiled pretty faces on all those play-with-peoples'-lives reality shows.

And now, not even knowing what he did wrong, they want it for some poor everyman named Larry.

His bended-knee plea to his wife of more than 17 years also calls to mind an earlier chivalry which seems so gone with the wind.

Maybe chivalry was superficial; and maybe it was based partly on keeping women in their place, if even on a pedestal. But surely we can agree in 2005 that both sexes are fully capable of honoring each other. There's nothing wrong with that. There's everything right with it.

However imperfect, however old-fashioned, however subject to manipulation, romance isn't dead.

On the contrary, people are dying for it.