Blog 407 – 09.17.2016

What does it mean to be In Love? Countess love stories portrayed in movies, plays, books, and songs have tried to answer that question. I would like to offer a view slightly askew. Often I have found looking strait on, the way we are taught to view things, that we miss certain reflections and angles that often help us to a clearer understand. I hope you will take a few moments and go away with a different take on being In Love.

I love Sinatra and the following are the first lines of one of his classic hit songs:

I’ve got the world on a string
Sitting on a rainbow
Got the string around my finger
What a world, what a life,
I’m in love.

My first love like most little boys was my mama. My mama was a flawed person, aren’t we all, but she was broken. I think my mother never forgave herself for something she did when she was young. And since she could not forgive herself she had a hard time forgiving others. My mama read love stories, romance books about tall, dark, and handsome men who won the hands and hearts of their fair lady. Her favorite movie was Gone With The Wind. Long before Turner Classic Movies she rode a bus downtown to see it every time it was re-released. She would proudly name the number of times she had seen it. She loved Clark Gable and wept when he died. My mama was a jealous god and would have no other gods before her. And that is how I was taught to love – one true love to the exclusion of all others.

I remember my horror in Bible class in Junior High when Mr. Finkle our teacher quoted Jesus saying that if anyone wanted to be his disciple they had to hate their mother and father. The teacher explained it meant love them less not hate as we understood it. But I remember thinking, “To hell with that I will never love anyone more than I love my mother.” That is such a childish way of looking at love. Real love never asks us to chose sides. My problem with religions, political parties and most groups is that they draw circles that leave others out. They all seem to think they’ve got it right and everyone else is wrong, the wrong color, the wrong faith, the wrong educational background the list goes on. And they all demand your exclusive loyalty and love.

Being in love means to most people finding that someone you love more than your mama or daddy, more than anyone else in the wide world. I don’t see it that way. I think being In Love means finally realizing that you are Love and that you can love everybody and everything or as Jesus put it, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as you love yourself.” That is loving everybody and everything with all that you are.

And, Frankie Baby, that is having the world on a string, sitting on a rain bow. This is the life. Hey now, I’m so in love.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White