Blog 32 – 5.20.15

My Dad had many verbal expressions and one of my favorites was any time someone did him a service or a kindness he would say, “What do I owe you?” Dad never had very much money but fortunately most of the time people would reply, “Oh, you don’t owe me anything.” And both they and he would smile. Being debt free is something to smile about. Most of us dream of having all our debts paid off, but unless we win the lottery that won’t be happening in the near future.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Owe no man anything but to love one another.” Another of my dad’s humorous expressions was, “I’d rather owe you the rest of my life than to cheat you out of a penny.” I think with Paul that I owe everyone but one thing to love them. Someone has said that every act is an act of love or a cry for love.

I told you in my piece entitled The Music Man that I love to sing. My favorite songs are love songs and I am currently trying to memorize the words and music to a beautiful duet from the musical and movie The Phantom Of The Opera. The song is titled, All I Ask Of You.

It is beautiful melody with moving lyrics. I think every love song echoes the One True Love Song, that the The Universe, God if you will, sings to him/herself, to all creation, to the Universe and specifically and personally to you and to me. Many years ago now Gladys Knight and the Pips performed such a love song, the words of which went like this:

If anyone should ever write my life story
For whatever reason there might be
You’d be there in every line of pain and glory
‘Cause you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.

The love songs that touch me the most are duets. Two that come to mind are Endless Love with Lionel Richie and Diana Ross and Suddenly Seymour with Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene. It just thrills me to feel the romantic passion between two voices. We are that second voice echoing back to the Universe, “Say you love me.” And he/she replies, “You know I do.” Then both voices together sing, “Love me, that’s all I ask of you.”

I challenge you and myself to see the rest of our journey here as Cupid with one mission to carry the Great Valentine to everyone we meet along the way. They like we owe no one anything but to love them. For sometime I have taken to answering the question, What Do I Owe You? with the standard reply, “You don’t owe me anything just to love me.” From now on I’ll add, “That’s all I ask of you.”

Your Fellow Traveller,
David White