Why are you looking for love?

I was walking up the Champs-Elysées with a friend today. She usually walks down the most famous avenue in the world, in a hurry. She hates the crowd, the tourists blocking her way to get the perfect picture of the Arc de Triomphe, the restaurant chairs and tables generously spilling onto the huge sidewalks, the geometrically shaped trees of uniform size, the traffic jam and the cars honking...well, just about everything. She just wants to get through the ordeal of this walk and get into the metro station.

Today however, was different. She was taking her time walking, looking up at the trees and the sky beyond, and was even smiling...at strangers around her. A little hassled, I asked her what was going on. She gave me the corniest answer one could give - "It's so beautiful to be in love". Yep, that's exactly what she said. My jaw dropped, and I started looking around, perplexed.

Yesterday I met an older woman, a staunch feminist and a very independent woman, who went on for an entire hour about how men are selfish and demanding and how they always expect the woman to be perfect, even if they themselves are light years away from even the vicinity of perfection!!

Wherefrom my obvious confusion. My friend is so passionate about falling in love, that I know that in a few months or years we will be walking up this avenue again, and she would have fallen out of love with her guy. I am equally sure that the woman I met yesterday must have her moments of loneliness and a desire to have a stable company in life. They are both so different and are yet looking for the same well hidden treasure. Would the solution be to stop looking and stop expecting? Like Khalil Gibran has said,
"And think not you can
Direct the course of love,
For love,
If it finds you worthy,
Directs your course."