Love is not about Pretending

This story is about a beautiful nymph called Pomona. Pomona dedicated her life to take care of the trees and flowers and loved the fields and orchards. Pomona lived happily with nature and kept away from every suitor. However, the God of Springtime was completely in love with her and was determined to do anything to gain her love. Unfortunately, Pomona was too busy taking care of the plants and tree so she didn’t pay attention to him. In effect, Vertumnus decides to disguise himself with different costumes so that Pomona notices him.

“Narrator:
In the manner of the shyer gods he used to disguise himself, would put on the clothes of a farmhand, wear a straw hat and a working man´s shirt, and stick hay stalks behind his ears, to look like some storybook yokel.” Pg 49



“Narrator:
When that produced nothing, he thought he might hold in his hand a pruner, trying to look like a field hand who tends the grapes in their arbors. After the complete failure of that, he came with a ladder, to seem as though he were bound for some nearby orchard to gather apples. With wigs, costume, and makeup, he once tricked himself out as a soldier, romantically returned from foreign wars. Another time, he set himself up as an ordinary fisherman fishing in her path on the chance she might pass by. He waited from dawn to dusk, passing from boredom to terror and back again.” Pg 50

Vertumnus is determined to win Pomona, but she ignores him and does not seem impressed by his efforts. Finally he dresses up like an old lady and tells a story to Pomona.

I think that out of all the stories this one has been my favorite. I really enjoyed it since it has to do so much with love and how people act when they love someone. Vertumnus loved Pomona and despite her constant rejection he did not give up and continued struggling for her love. He did everything he could to gain her attention and played a bunch of different roles, but according to me this was completely useless. I think that if somebody loves you, he/she has to love you for who you are and not for whom you pretend to be. Vertumnus was so worried about getting Pomona´s attention that he totally forgot to show her who he really was. He was pretending to be everyone but him. I can totally relate to this since when you like someone you try to gain that person´s love and attention by acting as someone else. You start lying about what you like, how you feel, what you do, and everything that determines your identity. This may seem good at the beginning and sometimes you may actually obtain the person you desire, but in a long term basis this will result as an epic fail. Why? Because at the beginning you may trick yourself and your pair, but sooner or later he will find out who you really are and you will get tired of pretending.

"That's what real love amounts to- letting a person be what he really is. Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending- performing. You get to love your pretence. It's true, we're locked in an image, an act-” Jim Morrison