What of Love?

In looking at my early writing to this point I point to the work of Langston Hughes for giving me great clarity as a writer. In Hughes work I found that a book, poem or quote can be as long as you want it to be. I gained the confidence and liberation that comes with doing what you love to do more than anything else on earth. Langston Hughes words and work shinned like the lone light in a desolate land. The freedom and hope that dripped off every word he wrote gave me hope and made me yearn to find such a freedom in my work. I laughingly joke that if I had a little Langston Hughes voice in my head he would say “just write what you feel son and if people enjoy that’s fine but, if not the sun will rise in the morning”.

I have written quotes, poems, comedy sketches, blogs and even started a book. I have written the funny, the witty, the dark, the reflective and the introspective. I have not written much about the conundrum that is love. I heard a pastor say that you better be sure that the person you love, loves you the way you love them. He told a story of an old man that died and left his wife to be a widow after man years of marriage. The wife wrote this long beautiful obituary that she took to the newspaper. While at the paper the wife was advised that she would be charged 50 cent per word to which she replied “I will have to revise this”. The wife returned with the new obituary and she was informed that the obituary had to be at least 7 words long. The final obituary read “Henry Brown died, 88 Oldsmobile for sale”. I think its safe to safe that was funny but, also a word to the wise.

I think when we understand what love is we can understand what love is not. Love is not putting someone before god.  Love is not being unhappy. Love is not something that someone can explain to you in a paragraph. Love is not simple. Love is not something that you fall in or out of. I think the starting point of love is similar to faith in that it’s the substance of things hoped, the evidence of things not seen until you___. From the novice to the expert to the miserably married to the happily single I don’t think it’s ever too late to reassess how we look at love.