Thanks, it means a lot to me. I guess I stopped thinking of Jack and Ennis as a message couple as soon as they became real people to me, about four minutes into my first viewing of the movie. I do think it's a movie/novella about love and to say it's bout men in love does us all a disservice. If it has any message about men in love it's simply that love is love regardless of body parts involved. I certainly don't 'ship this couple because they are both men, and since I wanted the essay to reflect why I 'ship this pairing, I did just that. And that reason was simply the force of what it was they felt, and the tragedy that was inevitable under the power of that force.

I babble more. Anyway, thank you for commenting on that. I think it is important, especially for who haven't read the novella or seen the movie, to understand them as real people in love and not as a paradigm of gay love. Thank you!