In Which I Feel Very Young

I finished Love in the Time of Cholera last night. The ending was beautiful. They are sailing on a riverboat and have to turn around to go home, but they raise the yellow flag that signals cholera on board and spontaneously decide to sail on and on forever. It's an interesting meditation on aging and on what is expected from a life. I'm not sure that I've experienced enough life for that message to resonate deeply. The male protagonist, Florentino Ariza, falls in love with a girl as a young man. They court secretly and exchange letters for years--as they both grow up. And suddenly, one day,, the girl, Fermina Daza, turns around and realizes that she does not love Florentino Ariza, not really; she is disillusioned with their youthful romance. The passion which which Florentino Ariza showers her seems empty. He has created an illusion of her, of himself, of this wild love. I have never been in love. And thus I do not have an understanding of the agony Florentino Ariza experiences over the five decades in which he waits for Fermina Daza. I am skeptical of his instant attraction and understanding--the love-at-first-sight aspect of the romance. He feel too much too soon. I cannot decide what Gabriel Garcia Marquez intended in the story of this relationship. In some ways I think that he is describing a dream--a fantasy that haunts a man over the course of his life. Or prehaps Florentino Ariza is the ghost, haunting Fermina Daza. It would certainly explain many of his actions, that he is indeed a succubus--draining energy from his conquests in order to one day capture his ultimate prize.
Or this is a story about a man growing up. This is a story about marriage. This is a story about love. Too much love, as Florentino Ariza proves, can be just as bad as not enough. As in so many things, it is balance that ultimately brings Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza together.