Thought Bubble: Ed Sheeran's PHOTOGRAPH

They say, love is one of the essential things we need to feel for us to live. It varies to some extent from one pole to the other. It’s like for some reason validates our purpose and existence in this planet. Yes, it does make sense at some point. For all we know it, we are already feeling it. To whom? It doesn’t matter. But what if, what if we will come to a point where love – love that does exists, feels like unrequited, partial and sometimes hurtful?

Who are we running to? Who are we looking forward to keep the fire within eternally burning? Who will fix everything for our very soul? The answer is nowhere here in any of these words.

I bumped into this song by Ed Sheeran, Photograph fresh from his album x. It was a melancholy singing about how shit’s got real when it comes to love. It’s too C-O-M-P-L-E-X. It compels you to face things that we cannot really hold on to. There’s this someone who told me to write something about this song so there, I’ll try to give my two cents to Ed and company.

This song resembles different situations from different people. It is like a jab on those who are hurting, those who are hoping, and those who are just there merely standing and being themselves.

“Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes
But it's the only thing that I know
When it gets hard, you know it can get hard sometimes
It is the only thing that makes us feel alive”

The first verse is very straightforward but can be interpreted to several notions. Yes, love does hurt, but indirectly. It may be the cause but never the effect – or so it goes. Most people are hurting because of losing a loved one, being left by another, or being physically hurt to that effect. It is the catalyst of all evil (you’re vindicated, MONEY!) as we do most things, whether good or bad, because of love in general. That’s my perception there. On the second line, it follows up with providing our human nature – to love and love again. We may get hurt multiple times. We may be that stupid to commit all the same mistakes, but who are we to judge? It is engineered in our veins that we are bound to love again despite everything that we had in the past. We keep to follow this route well taken. Yes, love may be tough, but at least, it is somehow worth it. The third and fourth line is just plain and simple, in order to breathe you have to love or be loved, at least. (Thanks Mom!)

No matter how douche your ex was, you will always get to find someone better. Someone you deserve. Someone who’s willing to shed blood for you – for what it’s worth. But the moment you had your first, second, and so on, there will always be memories. There are things that you will never forget. At any moment, it might leave you a smile, a grin or even a small drop of tear in your eyes. It’s that special. And love did that. You know how hard it is and how the feeling sucks for remembering something that pushed you off the cliff. It’s just that painful. You even have to fight for recuperation every single fucking day. And so you post, repost, share, the same shit that you keeps on relating to any heartbreak on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or maybe Friendster (back when you had your puppy love then) just to ease the pain temporarily or just to get a sympathy from your bunch of not-so-real friends on your social media.

Anyhow, that’s why Mr. Sheeran said,

“We keep this love in a photograph
We made these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closing
Hearts are never broken
And time's forever frozen still.”

You just simply can’t move on. You just wished that only if you could turn back time, you certainly will. If only you could keep everything under control. Only for you to find out that it was never over. That it is still the same like before. We are stuck to that ideal moments where all you think about is how to let not time pass because love made you believe that life is wonderful and you are living magically with all the rainbow and unicorn shits up above. We keep it just for ourselves. We cherish it. We own it. We want to let it play in our minds forever. That’s when hurting starts to eat bits of you. #Guilty That’s when the tears start to race down from your worn, pathetic eyes which was only used for crying over someone who will never come back. If we can always ask God for a #ThrowbackThursday every day, everyone will be sane right now.

And that’s where Ed released the chorus, either the person who left you, tells you unknowingly that there’s still a memory for you to relive. It’s not that one is totally gone, it’s just that the right time is not up yet. Keeping someone in a pocket is really hard. This can be meant for us to keep the memories in our heart even if it’s already torn apart. Sounds masochism, right? But that’s how it should be. “You won't ever be alone, wait for me to come home.” It’s either you move on and find another, hold back and die miserably or just simply wait – for nothing. It hurts. It hurts, brothers and sisters. We are meant to experience that pain and try to endure it. We are meant to be hurt. But it will never always be the case.

On another perspective, another person will tell you that love can soothe and can “heal what has been hurt, change the fates' design, and save what has been lost” as soon as you walk by. That someone will tell you that it’s never too late to regain the trust someone has made you forbid. It’s just that the question is when, how, where, who will be that someone, but still the answer remains unknown. The lines reassured that it is ok to be hurt and the reason behind it is because if not for that, s/he may never meet you or worse, may never thought that you’re living right with that stupid creation God has ever made to be forgotten. #Bitter. Welp, only for this very reason that it is suggested that the writer wanted to make you feel that another set of memories are waiting for you to make. It is obligatory; however, it’s with someone you ought to know to be better than those who might have hurt you, that’s why, when the Pre-chorus to Chorus, you might feel that it was delivered lighter than it was first sung because it’s more of a reassurance that the memories that you have already, the one that you are keeping is already for good. That you’ve finally found your match and it’s something to live with, forever for another fixed amount of time.

We always want to have a knight in shining, shimmering armor. As aforementioned, we all want to live in a fairy tale wherein someone will protect you in the toughest call of time, lest no one will hurt you. And it’s shown here that no matter what you do (you can cheat now, honey), that even if you hurt that person, even if you have done the same thing you’ve experienced badly before, it is fine. Understanding is the key even if deep inside, hemorrhage is already felt. Even if you fall apart, which of course, you don’t wanna happen, s/he will always be there for you. Friends, lovers or not, the presence will still be there. Enveloped by all the memories you’ve made together, being a martyr will still fix this pain. You don’t have to worry. It takes one to know one.

Like what lockets are for, it is also suggested that you should put your current lover in the same place you put your former. It might be quite awkward, but that’s the place your love deserves. It can also be interpreted as to love and be faithful with someone who does the same to you. “Inside the necklace you bought when you were sixteen. Next to your heartbeat where I should be” It is analogous that the necklace you had when you were sixteen might be your first or whatever relationship you had before. Feeling that the love you have for him might not be the same than before, better wake yourself up and give the same shit. Even if you were hurt before, you’re not entitled to hurt someone innocent just to feel the type of vindication you wished you had with your ex. Better get your act straight ‘coz you are just being unfair. You don’t want to repeat the first verse just for emphasis. Just as promised, no matter how dupe you are, someone will stay for you. Someone will make you feel that love is still wonderful even without feeling too much pain.

To end the song, Ed Sheeran's Photograph told us to remember that no matter what might happen, there will always be this wonder whenever you both will remember the things you did together, embracing the feeling of how it is to be in love unbeknownst of what the future holds.

This song just leave us a note to be hopeless romantic forever as long as we find our “Best Love” (True is somewhat rare so I’d rather have the best relationship mixed with pain and joy). Life is a never ending cycle. Better love as long as you can. Better move forward as fast as it is possible since, shit is real and it will really blow every single piece of you. Let us find the true grit of this crazy little thing called love. Keep on loving,. keep on hoping. keep on ... err, trusting.

Good luck.

PS: I don’t know if everything I said here really make sense, but nonetheless, I already did what has been promised. ;)