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Tim Melvin on Romance and Markets 8/13/04
Found this in a forgotten collection of disks...forgot I had even written
this few years ago after the first Spec Party I attended...never posted it but
it seems worth sharing..and if not...hey thats what the delete key is for
Romance..the word itself carries a multitude of images and benevolent moon and
dancing stares, discrete champagne rendezvous with lovers. The word is used to
describe movies, individuals, couples, lifestyles, literature, music. It can be
found in descriptions of Shakespearean sonnets and on lurid covers of cheap
novels full of heaving bosoms and torn corsets, in movies filled with angst and
heartbreak We think of the great romantic pairing, Tracey and hepburn, Napoleon
and Josephine, Lancelot and guinvere, Humphrey and Ingrid, and of course harry
and sally. Romance can mean adventure, exotic travel, a waterfront view.The term
conjures different images from different people from the romance soaked dreams
of the oprah watching frustrated housewives to the adventure travels of the jet
set..ask a hundred different people,get a hundred different answers. Ask the
same person on a different day and the answer can change...strolling hand in
hand with the one you love on Monday, floating down a river with Huck and Tom on
Tuesday, the tarmac with Rick and Renault wistfully watching the departing
Lisbon plane on Friday..Romance is a basic ingredient of the well lived life.
Romance conjures many things essential to the essence of life, the soaring words
of a Shakespeare, the earth soaked love of yeats, the hedonistic joy of a wilde,
the soaring tones of a Bach, a Beethoven, the sensual mutations of handels Water
music, the longing in the first glance in anew loves eyes, the sensation of a
first kiss, the world itself enveloped in a space that contains only two and yet
somehow everything.many images, many thought, many identities. The one that is
the most striking and yet the most overlooked is one that has occurred to me
several times and sees worth exploring.. the romance of the markets and those of
us who dwell there. It is easy to see the knight so of old and James bond as
romantic..but speculators?
To explore the word and the connections more closely, first we must look at the
words themselves. Turning to Miriam Webster and his revising associates we find
many definition for each that are worth examining as they apply to the world
those of use who dance with the market mistress each day.
Main Entry: 1ro.mance 1 a (1) : a medieval tale based on legend, chivalric love
and adventure, or the supernatural (2) : a prose narrative treating imaginary
characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic,
adventurous, or mysterious (3) : a love story b : a class of such literature 2 :
something (as an extravagant story or account) that lacks basis in fact 3 : an
emotional attraction or aura belonging to an especially heroic era, adventure,
or activity 4 : LOVE AFFAIR
Main Entry:
1 : consisting of or resembling a romance
2 : having no basis in fact : IMAGINARY
3 : impractical in conception or plan : VISIONARY
4 a : marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic,
adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized b often capitalized : of, relating
to, or having the characteristics of romanticism c : of or relating to music of
the 19th century characterized by an emphasis on subjective emotional qualities
and freedom of form; also : of or relating to a composer of this music 5 a :
having an inclination for romance : responsive to the appeal of what is
idealized, heroic, or adventurous b : marked by expressions of love or affection
c : conducive to or suitable for lovemaking 6 : of, relating to, or constituting
the part of the hero especially in a light comedy
Main Entry: ro.man.ti.cism 1 often capitalized a (1) : a literary, artistic, and
philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by
a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and
emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use
of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man,
an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection
for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms (2) : an aspect of
romanticism b : adherence to a romantic attitude or style 2 : the quality or
state of being romantic
- ro.man.ti.cist
Again to our friends at websters:
Main Entry: spec.u.late 1 a : to meditate on or ponder a subject : REFLECT b
: to review something idly or casually and often inconclusively 2 : to assume a
business risk in hope of gain; especially : to buy or sell in expectation of
profiting from market fluctuations transitive senses 1 : to take to be true on
the basis of insufficient evidence : THEORIZE <speculated that a virus caused
the disease> 2 : to be curious or doubtful about : WONDER <speculates whether it
will rain all vacation> synonym
Main Entry: spec.u.la.tion: an act or instance of speculating : as a :
assumption of unusual business risk in hopes of obtaining commensurate gain b :
a transaction involving such speculation Bottom of Form 0
Speculators are by nature and in being a strange and unusual breed of people. We
have chosen a path that would seem predestined for failure. All the studies seem
to agree, if on nothing else, that 90% of all speculators fail. Most of us are
educated people with a good grasp on life and the concept of risk versus reward,
and yet we eschew the normal life in favor of chasing dancing red and green
blips across an electronic landscape full of dangers and dragons that would turn
St George white with fear. Perhaps along with Joyce s Stephen hero, acutely feel
the insidious dangers which conceal themselves under the guise of extravagance
but are convinced also that a dull discharge of duties,neither understood or
congenial,was far more dangerous and less satisfactory.Each day we assail the
summit, charging in full view of the world aspiring to the mountain peaks of
success while in constant danger of the ever present pit of Monday morning
margin calls have all known the feeling of pride in a good trade that turns sour
with a single utterance from a defense secretary starting with that contrarian
killing word regrettably ( for an excellent description of this event from a
specs point of view, see Victor Niederhoffers education of a speculator). The
world and all the studies in history predict our failure before we click the
mouse or call the floor to enter our first trade. We are universally vilified in
the press. Blamed for the near collapse of the bank of England, the crash of 87
and the Asian meltdown of 1997( it is interesting that speculators are so hated
by the mainstream, it was the champion of the downtrodden and exploited, author
John Steinbeck who pointed out : I don t know where speculation got such a bad
name since I know of no forward leap which was not fathered by speculation)..And
yet, here we are, chasing the numbers across the screen, speculators
speculating.
There is of course, something quixotesque about the average speculator.. I'm
talking now of the individual risking his funds and his future primarily, not
the slick young men and women trading the seemingly limitless funds of Goldman
and Salomon but the individual trader or fund manager who stakes his all and own
on his trading and analytical abilities. We tilt against the windmills of
academic thought, of traditional beliefs and against the odds of the market
mistress herself. Our quest is for knowledge, for gains, for independence, and
of course for wealth. The original don was out of course to better the world and
right wrongs..not the usual aim of a speculator although some, notable Soros and
templeton have used enormous portions of their wealth to attempt to reshape
society as the believe it should be and assist others in improving their
lot,,,but these activities would seem to be secondary to, not the central point
of, their speculations). Like the windmills on the plains of la mancha, all is
not as we see it in our endless calculations and study, and we are battered and
beaten for the mis seeing. But like the good Alonso, we pick up to live on and
fight another day. There are those who would drag the Mad dons of the market
back to the center.wives, in laws, friends and neighbors, back from our foolish
tilting against the odds and the gods, but for some of us, the windmills of the
market are preferable to the safety of the ordinary.
Although most of the successful specs I know are above average in intellect,
education, and life experience and could easily hold down high paying, lower
risk corporate jobs, the vast majority choose not to. There seems to be a
mindset among speculators, that since I share, I thin I can attempt to describe.
It would seem to be something along these lines, taken from a letter to a friend
in response to the question of why I was always out on the edge taking risks
with my money,and my life
All the mundane grinding of the day to day gathers into a long trail of
nothing.. not remarkable, not remembered at all or recalled at any time. Yet so
many live this way each day, cocooned in their safe little cabins of mundane
averageness, they trudge the roadway of life, a dry, dusty road with only the
occasional water stop where warm tepid water is passed out by bored looking
minions and guardians of the path, dressed as bosses, as parents, priests and
ministers, politicians and rabbis, murmuring promises of some strange unknown
unexplainable reward down the road..they've never experienced it or been past
their own little water stop but they promise if you keep moving, following the
form in front of you, not stopping, no exploration, suck in the dust, eyes upon
the dull brown of the path, somewhere, somehow down that road something better
awaits all the while off to the side of the road those souls who recall the
passion and spirit of adventure they were born with and refused to have it beat
out of them by so called normalcy, have found that just off the side of the
road, through the gray bleakness of the concrete walls on that dusty road, are
beautiful glens and hollows, with spreading tress with shade and lush sensual
green grass, and music plays soaring, Beethoven s 9th, handles water music,
vivaldis 4 seasons, and james brown ,sinatra, its all their off to the side, and
wine is sipped and food is plentiful,..its right there, just to the side of the
road..you can hear the music as you trudge along, but so many just keep walking,
paying the mortgage, mowing the lawn, going to church, avoiding sinful sex,
listening to top 40 and watching a very brady sequel and jerry springer. Or that
girl reruns. Reading stephen king novels as literature and may angelou, when
over in the glade they read Shakespeare, baudelaire, joseph conrad, ernest
hemingway, they watch the old film noir movies and the great romantics, bogart,
cary grant, talent and script not just half dressed bodies and violence
impersonating art I mean as nice as half dressed bodies are what good is one on
the screen without one in your arms?
What is it that drives some of us over the wall, to recognize that life is not a
dull dreary drudgery, that the intent of whatever benevolent deity created us
did not intend this dreary, thirsty trudge, but that the road was only the path
we took from glen to glen from quiet dell to raucous valley? There is risk in
going over the wall..It is topped with the razor sharp wires of loss,
heartbreak, poverty, pain..The water passers have seen to that. But isn t the
risk of losing it all, betting it all on love, on lust, on poets and on poems
better than this? Anything lost going over the wall can be regained,, I've
proven that. I have been impaled on the wires many times, been rich, been broke,
bet big, won big, lost big, been loved, been lost..but each time I find healing
in the glade, healing for my body, healing for my mind, for my soul. There is
peace in the arms of a lover, the words of a song, the ring of Shakespeare s
words, the musings of joyce, the touch of a woman s lips and the sparkle of her
eyes. To find the glades, the valleys, the love, the lust. The passion, the
romance we must be willing to assume risk, to swallow it and let it dribble down
our chins so what,; What are we risking? A lifetime of walking down that dusty
road, living on the lukewarm spittle passed out by the water keepers of society.
Fine, I will risk it. For me, it so ver the wall, risks be dammed. Play the
music, fire up sinatra, lets dance to a little James brown, and lets drink,
smoke,, drink the wine of life and spill on each other, winestains on our shirts
and smiles on our lips..lets shoot craps in the alley, read Shakespeare by the
pond,lie on the beach at dawn watching moonbeams skip the surf like scattered
handfuls of diamonds leaping in the foam,lets get drunk and read EE
cummings.lets kiss,make love..lets dance,lets sing,.lets savor the moments that
make up this erotic, romantic, sensual incredible cornucopia of life that some
wonderful god(dess)has laid before us sure we have to walk the dusty road one in
while, me have to raise kids, pay for roofs and food .and it s the only way to
the next valley so we walk a little ways, but always aware of the soft songs and
delighted laughter to the side
I do not meant with my words to create an image of speculators as carefree
sensualist who eschew work in favor o of play or looking to live on the quick
score. For most, even those who have hit the big one a multitude of times,
speculating in financial markets is a kind of love affair, We cannot imagine not
doing it . And far from the image of the wild eyed Diamond Jim carefree amoral
speculator created in literature and media, speculation is work. To develop the
theories and approaches, the patience and the discipline necessary to
successfully trade in the financial markets requires a work ethic that would
make a 19th century new england Protestant green with sinful envy.If romance is
as defined above in main (3), a love story, then speculation is romance. For you
cannot do this for very long if you do not love it. The stress, the emotional
swings, the long hours and tedious research would drive one quite mad without an
underlying love of the gyrations of business and finance. I have known many
super successful traders and investors. All worked long hours, were capable of
losing all track of time while researching a new idea or theory,and truly love
what they do.I believe it was Churchill who said that a mark of success to go
from failure to failure without a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. This seems to
be a trait of successful traders
Like any truly good love story, there are periods and times of heartbreak.
Virtually all of us have danced with or fallen into the pit of the Monday
morning margin call. The greatest among us, Soros, niederhoffer, robertson,
Jones, have tasted the ash of the big fall. The misadventures of Michael Marcus,
the reclusive currency mega trader described in the first edition of Schwagers
market Wizards in his early trading adventures show an amazing resilience to
failure, an uncanny ability to take blows that would shatter mere mortals. Like
Ali in the foreman fight, successful speculators seem willing to suffer
shattering blows and yet continue to learn,grow and pursue their chosen
craft.Perhaps along with the great violinist, Igor Stravinsky we have come to
understand that we learn chiefly through our mistakes and pursuit of false
assumptions, not by exposure to fonts of wisdom and knowledge.I suspect it is
our love of the game and belief in ourselves and the romantic, wonderful nature
of life and the universe possibilities and probabilities that starts us back on
the path, unable to stop anymore than the Don could stop his mad search for
Dulcieana. Or yeats Mad aegnus could stop searching holly land and hilly land
for her, wherever she had gone.
In fact our love affair with the markets often strains other love affairs in our
life. It takes a rare breed of man or woman to be married to or committed to a
speculator,esecially in the early days. It is perhaps easier after success and
the park avenue apartment and long island estate but even then they live with
the knowledge that it can disappear in a blink, and that often their companion
will leap up from a romantic dinner with a eureka and run to the bloomberg and
the spreadsheets as an idea comes to fruition. Most of us would be better
waiting until we find a spouse along the lines of a spec spouse who wrote the
following during this during a particularly tumultuous time in the markets:
Memo to All Spec Spouses:
>
>It has come to my attention that some of you are getting a bit nervous
>over recent events in the market and inadvertently transmitting such anxiety to
>your trading partners. CEASE IMMEDIATELY!!
>As has been noted many times on these pages, emotions can play a
>powerful role in trading decision-making. Terrible market declines
>sorely test the strongest trader and can shake one's self-confidence.
>This can be a recipe for disaster by prompting a trader to throw in the towel
just before
>the market turns in his favor.
>
>At this point the worst thing a loving spouse can do is further erode
>your trader's confidence in himself (or herself). He needs a clear
>head and calm surroundings to fully concentrate on the problem at hand and
focus on
>the proper direction forward. Suggestions of trades he could have made
>on the close yesterday or queries about the amount of liquid capital
>available to the household today are generally not helpful.
>
>Rather you should marshal all your resources to show your trader that
>you have confidence in his ability to do the right thing. Remind him
>of all the times in the past that he has snatched victory from the jaws of
defeat
>by doubling up at the bottom. It is sometimes helpful to let your
>trader know that you love him no matter what and that material things have
never
>meant a lot to you (although this can backfire on traders who pride
>themselves on being good providers). Intercept the phone calls of
>worried friends calling to see if you are ok. Make sure the children play
quietly and are
>extra nice to Dad. Distract him after the market is closed and let him talk
about
>it without offering advice.
>
>And be sure to remind him that so long as he has enough chips to play
>tomorrow he can always make it back...
>
>Respectfully submitted,
Spec Spouse
Other qualities needed for a speculators spouse are found in the reply of
Jennifer lackey, the wife of a wild eyed day trader and race car aficionado,
James lackey of Florida
Your message sounds to be from the heart of an actual trader. As a traders wife,
I have always been supportive, even when the times have been tough. And believe
me, we have been through some tough times!!! I bite my tongue every time he has
a bad day, and comes home saying the same thing he said 2 days before, " I'll
NEVER hold overnites again!" And what do you think he does the very next
day?....With a great excuse of course, "but honey, I know the whole world is
crashing....trust me! So, last nite he holds overnites and at 2:30 A.M. he wakes
up in a panic attack, because everything IS crashing, only nothing is in his
favor. By 9:30A.M. he's got fever blisters forming from nerves because he's
trying so hard not to blow up. The good thing about blowing up is knowing that
once you recover (sometime in the next year) you have learned so much of what
you should have done and what you should never do again. I trust him totally and
let him know that if he comes home and says "Honey, I lost $50,000.00!", I just
say " That's O.K. honey, you'll make it back tomorrow." And he does! Jennifer
Lackey
(AND ADDED NOTE>>LACK>>YOU LUCKY SOB>>TM 8/13/04)
Such individuals are of course , as rare as successful speculators themselves.
However one has only to watch Yale Hirsch and his wife and they way they still
look at each other to understand the possibilities.
Most of the specs I have met tend to be passionate people, passionate about more
than just markets, but life, people, theories,ideas, politics,music..in short
everything. The majority that I have know are also somewhat sensual in their
approach to life. History tends to bear this out with episodes and sexcapades of
great traders being legend among industry insiders. Stories of the lecheries of
the early robber barons traders and modern great alike abound. Even the
grandfatherly renowned Ben graham ( call him the original value investor if you
like. As near as I can tell from his writings and autobiography he may have
taught careful analysis, but in practice he appears to have used his skills to
speculate on liquidations and arbitrage type situations) was so well known as a
ladies man that friends and associates were loathe to leave their wives in a
room with him. The first fixed income derivative was apparently developed by
Casanova, who was also know as a speculator, mathematician and gambler.The board
of trade and merc alike are riff with reported and rumored sex scandals over the
years.Amazingly, beyond the chapter on sex and speculation in victor book ( if
you don t recall it, I highly suggest rereading it..it is educational,
enlightening and entertaining as hell. ), there is very little written on this
topic. There are thousands of books on speculation, and thousands more on
sexuality. no one it seems has et been brave enough to explore the correlation
of the two. Anecdotal evidence supplied n the after hours sessions now known as
spec list after dark tend to bear out the conclusions of the passionate and
sensual nature of traders and speculators. Over Famous Grouse, makers mark( the
bourbon drinkers in the room, tasteless heathens that they were are reminded to
once again thank Susan for that generous
contribution) and a bottles of wine left form that days dinner, the
conversations in a well rounded room including options traders, distressed
securities speculators, futures traders, stock guys and at least one
psychologist, from 6 states and at least 4 nations that I can recall expounded
with fervor on their beliefs on everything under the sun. As the libation intake
increased, the ribald and sensual views of several were expressed in no
uncertain terms. Although not thoroughly researched or studied, this small
microcosm of the universe tend to support the theory of speculators as romantic
and sensualists underneath the calculations and theorizing.
It is in the definition of romanticism that I find the truest comparison to the
life and motivations of speculators. The life of a speculator does seem to me to
be a school of philosophic,artistic and literate one. Universally the specs I
have met, the ones still around after the bust, the ones with the commitment
drive and discipline to survive have adopted a view of the world and philosophy
that serves them well Thomas Hampton in the PBS series, I hear America singing,
defined the romanticist thusly
Embracing the unknown and unafraid of the contraries of human existence, the
Romantics overthrew the philosophical, artistic--even geographical--limitations
of the Enlightenment. The quintessential Romantic figure was the Wanderer,
literally and figuratively journeying in search of new lands, new places in the
imagination, and new vistas for the soul. Exotic lands, the amorphous world of
dreams, the dark terrors of the psyche as well as the dizzying heights of
creativity and the dazzling beauties of Nature--these were all waystations along
the Romantic quester's route.
The throw off of convention and the search for new ideas, new vistas in common
theme among those who trade the markets. It takes enormous imagination,
creativity and focus on self to make a living this way.
It was George Bernard Shaw who observed that all progress is the unreasonable,
therefore all advances are the result of the efforts of unreasonable men, Thomas
huxley who postulated that all advances in natural knowledge have involved the
absolute rejection of authority. Successful speculators set there own terms for
how they choose to live, and they are outside the bounds of the normal corporate
advancement, commuting, television watching norm.I am continually amazed by the
output of specs away from the markets. Seemingly the intellectual curious nature
of the average spec takes them down many fields and paths, the results being
numerous books being written, paintings commissioned, artists sponsored,
companies developed and life s enhanced. Many are accomplished musician finding
a similarity between market patterns and musical ones. There have been
psychological discoveries, scientific advancements in math, chemistry, biology
developed by those whose intense intellectual curiosity takes them not just to
the markets but done every possible path the human mind can explore.
Examining the parallels between romantic literature and the life of a speculator
that the pure romanticism of speculating for a living,becomes, to me, the most
apparent. N the world of finance and trading all of the great themes of romantic
novels are played out daily, and the all the stereotypical heroes and villains
are present. We have kings, would be kings,fallen kings and pretenders to the
throne. For every Rockefeller and Soros, we have a Livermore, a Daniel Drew and
a Boesky, giants for a short time felled by their own visions or corruption. We
have alchemists attempting to spin gold from flax, would be wizards with complex
formulae, characters of the unlikely names of gann, merriweather and citron are
among the many who have declared that they and they alone knew the secrets of
the market mistress only to find spray painted bars of lead in the vault at the
end of the day. The grand wizards, those smart enough to know alchemy is a sham
but still capable of issuing definitive statements of laboratory success that
may or may not work in the real world, men such as fama, french, samuelson,
sharp and malkiel, We have our prophets of doom and gloom, the witches of
grant,abelson and feschback continually stirring the cauldron of falling prices
and imminent collapse, knight errants such as lynch and bogle out to save the
common man from his underinvested plight --hell we even have jesters ala cramer
(okay the guy has a reputation as a good trader and astute observer but his
maniac behavior and outrageous statements brand him jester) and glanville. All
the lords and ladies of the grand court are present in the speculators world.
One of the common themes of romantic literature is the seagoing man pirate and
privateer, a them that transfer well to discussions of speculators and
speculation. Not because speculation is an inherently evil practice or robs and
pillages society as one might think ( in fact without speculators, the concept
of democracy and free market has a life span of something like two days), but
because the motivations are similiar.I suspect many of use who now speculate
would have been adventurers ,privateers and pirates had we been born in a
different time. But as the troubadour of palm trees and south seas, jimmy the
other buffet sings, the cannons don t thunder, theres nothing to plunder in a
modern society. A desire to build wealth outside the norms of society to live as
one chooses. Thomas Cochrane the inspiration for Horatio Hornblower and o Briens
jack aubrey was know for his daring, his willingness to take a stand against the
odds. There seems to be some credence to the story that he chose the sea after
his along with his father s intellectual curiosity and experiments bankrupted
the family estate. His curiosity led to develop numerous weapons of war over the
years, and his boundless thirst for adventure cause his life to read as a heroic
novel.it is this boundless quest for knowledge and spirit of independence and
adventure is similar to securities traders today. Sir Walter Raleigh was trained
in the law but his drive for success and adventure led him to become a privateer
and explorere.captain jh callie was a retailer who grew board and joined the
Navy to escape the everyday.Stede bonnet was a respectable merchant and planter
who turned to piracy, some say out of an aversion to respectability, while
others insinuate that it was to escape a nagging wife.men of earlier times took
to the seas to seek fortune, or perhaps fame. It was a hard life replete with
dangers and arduous tasks but allowed an escape from the ordinary and mundane
and a chance for great riches. In days of yore they galloped the Spanish main
and sailed the blue Caribbean under letters of marque, chasing galleons and
sloops. Today, men of adventurous commercial spirit and a romantic heart chase
markets, dodging margin calls rather than cannonballs, tracking market movements
in shades of red and green rather than skies of red at first light, sighting
emerging patterns and trends rather than far off masts, but the spirit of fierce
independence and desire for achievement outside the ordinary is similar.
Another of the common themes of romantic and adventure literature is that of the
solitary man, the man standing outside the norms of society, making it on his
own terms and in his own way. The works of Louis L amour, particularly the
sackett series show this sprit of adventure , the tremendous self belief, a
desire to explore new lands, build wealth and climb the summit of life on ones
terms. Jack schaefers Monte Walsh is a masterpiece of the genre, exploring the
themes of live lived as one desires,not as one is told. By developing a special
skill set devoting the time and effort to become a master at his craft of
cowboying and horse breaking, Monte lives as he chooses, not as others dictate.
His fanatical devotion to his craft and to his close circle of friends are
traits observable today in trading rooms from weston ct to san diego ca and all
points in between.In literature, the solitary soul is often on the prairie, in
the forest of the old west, or perhaps the middle eastern trade routes of the
middle ages, seeking, learning,exploring the world and himself. Toady with the
notable exception of Bo and those few like him, I think the solitary dreamers
and seekers are found behind quotrons and bloombergs, living outside dictated
societal terms, surrounded by close and devoted groups of friends and associates
learning about the markets, about the world and most of all about themselves.
Perhaps I have reached too far describing the speculator as a romantic, the
tradecraft practiced by them as a romantic one. Certainly the mathematical and
studious nature of speculation would not seem to be the root of a romantic soul.
However among those I have had the extreme pleasure to know and associate with
over the years, the common traits seem to be a boundless optimism, well
developed self belief. A vision of the world as a wonderful exciting place worth
exploring and celebrating.They are willing to risk themselves, their capital,
their mental and emotional security on the strength of their thought s and their
ideas. They the develop discipline required to embrace risk and tend to see
danger as opportunity.They cherish art, literature, music,science and seemingly
all intellectual endeavors and practices. They refuse to be told how to live and
eschew the mundane for the possible and celebrate live at every turn. And that,
to my mind, is romantic.