By Peter Oduor
Millicent Adhiambo*, 27, fondly remembers the day she met Gilbert, her fiancÈ with whom she is set to wed mid this year. Their courtship started two years ago at a mutual friend’s graduation party.
Being in a relationship with another man, Millicent thought Gilbert would just be a friend and so when he called two days later and asked her out for lunch, she considered it harmless and went. Two weeks later after clearly reading his motives, she invited him for lunch with only one aim: To put a stop to whatever was going on in his mind.
The picture, he recalled for her, was of an enchanting beauty with smooth, velvety skin the colour of molten honey. He rhapsodised about her hair and angelic behaviour.
Millicent says at this point she checked herself in her pocket mirror and when she looked up again, she found Gilbert looking at her straight in the face.
Planning a wedding
Proceeding as though she was not there he said, "When I saw you two weeks ago, it dawned on me that finally I had met the one person I have been waiting for. My eyes could not get enough of you and my mind thought of nothing else but you. These days I go to sleep thinking of you and wake up thinking of you."
Millicent did not resist when he deftly held her hand and added, "Does your boyfriend know what a treasure he has in you? Does he really know who you are and appreciate you like he should? What about your happiness, does he worry about it? Millicent, if you allow me, I will be all that you need."
Smiling, she says does not know how it happened, but two months later she had broken up with her boyfriend and now they are planning a wedding with Gilbert.
Even the high and mighty, regardless of their power and influence, still fall back on these honeyed words that to a third party may seem purely nonsensical.
Harry Truman, a departed President of America, chanced on a lady at a Sunday school. Her name was Elizabeth Wallace. She was beautiful and worth so much in his eyes that even after turning down his marriage proposal, he still diligently and painfully courted her for seven years. Truman must have been a patient man though this might not be the reason why they finally got married sometime in 1919.
Sugary words
It turns out from a love letter that he wrote to Elizabeth that he was bitten by the sugary words bug once he started pursuing Elizabeth. The affection he had for her was full to the brim and spilling over.
"I suppose that I am too crazy about you anyway. Every time I see you, I get more so if it is possible. I know I haven’t any right to but there are certain things that can’t be helped and that is one of them. I wouldn’t help if I could you know."
Truman, like most men who find themselves suddenly poetic, mellow and sweet once they fall in love turned to the beauty of language, and the power of words never failed him.
Some men take it to extremes when they decide to confess of their inequities and agree to change for the better if only their dream girl loved them. They will swear to transform and others even change their lifestyles.
Brenda*, who teaches at a secondary school and is born again, recalls how Kasera Charles* approached her after church one Sunday last year. They had met as she was heading home and started a conversation.
The following Sunday he was at the church and that set all the alarm bells off since Charles was not a keen churchgoer. He was known to drink and had a host of other rumours flying around and about him that unfortunately had the tendency of being confirmed as true with time.
Constantly on her heels
He made known his intentions and, thereafter, was constantly on her heels. He soon proposed to her, which was a real surprise.
"Charles went down on his knees and told me that he wanted to start afresh, he wanted to start a family and that he wanted to start that family with me. He promised me that he would be good, that his tongue would lose the taste of alcohol and that he would love me for eternity."
When Brenda asked him about the church he solemnly added that he would take the hol y communion and be baptized under new light not to mention that he was ready to start paying tithe.
Brenda’s heart went out to him and not long afterwards, they were married.
Music artists are known the world over for their adoration and praise of women. They never run short of colourful words and Beethoven, the great composer, in desperation for an unknown lady’s love wrote to her sometimes more than once in a day. It could be July 6 morning, July 6 evening, July7 morning and so on.
A love letter he wrote to the woman could make any woman weak in the knees and send her head spinning, "Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us. I can live only wholly with you or not at all. Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits. Yes, unhappily it must be so…"
And it ended thus, "Oh continue to love me
Never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved
Ever thine
Ever mine
Ever ours."
This, to many, is among the best love letters ever and no doubt men have used it to thaw the hearts of many ladies. What of the song by UB40, The way You Do The Things You Do which is another example of how artistes can get all crazy when praising women just to get them in their arms. It goes:
"You make my life so rich
You know you could have been some money
And baby you’re so sweet
You know you could have been some honey …"
As old as mankind
Here in Kenya there is Nameless and his song, Sinzia, probably the song that won him the love of his life, Wahu:
"I wish I could be your shoe
I would have such a beautiful view
And if I was the slit on your dress
My goal in life would be to aim for the highest
If only I could be your body lotion
I would work with undivided devotion…"
Whatever it is that gets into the minds and hearts of men when they fall in love, it surely turns them into soft and sweet creatures.
There are some things that a man cannot hide. One such thing is when a man is in love. Love is one feeling that is as old as mankind yet it continues to baffle men and women alike. Taken as a feminine feeling, the flipside of love that shows what men can do or say when in love borders on the absurd. Nothing is more fascinating to listen to than a man in love who is out to get the lady to love him.
At times the words are well thought out and full of meaning but most of the time they are empty, hollow and nothing but smooth talk.
Women know this fact yet strangely they find it hard to resist the words. Probably it is the thought that the men who utter such words are charismatic and fun to be with. The men have learnt this and are milking the words for all their worth.
