I'm calling this one, "Anytime, Anywhere," because it's a good season to season look. It illustrates how it only takes a few tiny changes to make your wardrobe next-season ready. For spring, ditch the coat. For summer, leave the scarf at home and maybe switch out the boots for sandals. For winter, add a cardigan over the t-shirt. Simple and painless. Gotta love a classy tee, sexy jeans, and classic jewelry. Plus, this outfit has a Scottish feel, and there's a reason for that.
This is a big episode--for once, no pun intended. Big doesn't even enter the picture. Charlotte gets married. However, before she does, she sleeps with Trey for the first time, only to find that he can't keep it up. Terrified, she nearly doesn't go through with the wedding but decides that her love is stronger than her libido. Samantha meets one of Trey's Scottish cousins at the rehearsal dinner. Though she can't understand a word he says, she finds out that in bed, no language is needed. Miranda tries a speed dating service, where people get five minutes to decide if they're interested in a person before moving on to the next candidate. Having no luck with telling men she's a Harvard grad and partner in her firm, she lies about being a stewardess to a man as equally dishonest about his own profession. Carrie finally comes clean to Aidan, who decides that he just can't handle trying to work it out. The two part ways.
Carrie and Aidan's goodbye scene is supposed to be touching and heartbreaking, but I just found myself uninterested. First, Carrie never seemed that into him, so all of her tears and drama just seemed fake. Second, Carrie really never cared about hurting Aidan (at least not more than she cared about the whole situation working out for her), so her apologies seemed forced and, well, also fake. And Aidan, though he was always very caring toward her, was never very emotionally demonstrative, so his pained expressions bordered on, for lack of a more appropriate word, fake. So, all in all nobody was doing their best acting there--not that SJP is an amazing actress, despite her charm (does she ever actually cry?).
The most moving scene shows Charlotte taking Carrie aside right before walking down the isle. You can see the terror on her face as she contemplates a sexless marriage with Trey. But she goes for it anyway, determined to get married as she said she would and even more determined to have "love" conquer all--even sex. It's strange to think that momentum can make a wedding take place, but it's true. Sometimes it's just easier to go through with it. Not that I would know.
Love is important, yes. Sex is also important. Lots of things are important. But I'm not sure the deciding factor for whether or not you're going to link yourself with someone for eternity should be whether or not it's too late to cancel. Maybe it should. Maybe everyone gets jitters and cold feet. Maybe all spouses-to-be fear the moment when they meet their partners at the altar. Are doubts natural?
When I was two weeks away from my wedding, I did not fear an eternity with Arnold, because I hadn't even thought that far in advance. I just dreaded another day of migraine headaches. I could only think of the immediate consequences of what we were about to do--that I would move to Boston with him, and that we would continue to relate how we were relating. He had asked me to marry him only a month and a half before, and I was stymied. I felt like the wedding was a big whirlwind I couldn't even see out of to decide anything rational--a whirlwind I had created myself. I thought it was better to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible, and I treated our big day like D-Day--a negative event I had to gear up for and get through.
I thought I was normal. At age 22, I figured I was experience the usual symptoms of a young person getting married. I didn't realize something was deeply wrong with how I felt about fusing my life with Arnold's. So, two weeks before, after numerous spiritual walks to gain clarity and days of praying for answers, I decided I needed to talk to someone. Things apparently weren't going to clear up on their own. I went to a random church and talked to the first person who would see me. I don't even remember her name, and I haven't seen her since that time.
When she sat me down, she listened to what was going on and just said, "Well, you know you don't have to get married if you don't want to." It was a simple as that, but I really needed to hear it. It's the same thing groomsmen have been telling scared grooms for centuries and the same thing Carrie tells Charlotte right before the latter walks down the isle. Usually it's the catalyst for a "What am I doing of course I love her/him and want to marry her/him" moment, but for me it was a release. I canceled the wedding that day and haven't had regrets since.
Love's a funny thing. When it's there, it can make all arguments against it seem petty. When it's not, the whole thing's just not worth it. I have no doubt that doubts are normal. Maybe even fear is normal. In the end, though, the love between two people has to be stronger than these things. Perhaps it really is that simple.
I hope you'll be back. I will.
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