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“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (to borrow from Raymond Carver)
Love is one of those topics that I could write endlessly on. To quote from one of my very favorite contemporary writers, Jeanette Winterson:
“I have stalked love with the passion of a fanatic and the stealth of a hunter.”
Sometimes, I have found this love, and other times, I have lost this love.
Being a nostalgic melancholy romantic at the best of times, I have always been in awe of it’s power to bring about pretty much anything. That almost un-sayable word, that, as I once wrote in a poem, “Because wars are fought and kingdoms fall, for that…” of course love encompasses so much — so many variations — so often overlapping in time, place and feelings.
What once was, is no more, and what will perhaps be is uncertain, too.
All of this to say: in these very scary and very uncertain times, make it a point, without hesitation, to acknowledge and celebrate love for others in your life who, just by their very presence, make your life (and this seemingly endless crazy world) a bit more bearable, and a lot more humane. Because, ultimately, it’s all that we have — money, health, yes, these things are important but at the end of this life, as we know it, how many of us want to shuffle off this mortal coil and think: “I wish I…
