What a word. Getting up this morning (sober–my liver still works well) I was pondering love. Can I not posit as an absolute truth that we are ALL stupid and ridiculous, at least at times? On some level, could we not see the Marine Corps uniform–any military uniform–as ridiculous? Aren’t they polyester?
Look at any woman or man in love: are they not slack-jawed and silly, especially if the other person does not love them? Look at anyone grieving. Look at the ridiculous facial expressions, the moans, the cries, the weeping.
Watch us, all of us, scheming during the day. Watch us looking at a woman or man that we secretly desire, who is committed to another. Watch us wondering how it would be to be rich and lacking for nothing. Or watch the rich man, pondering the meaning of life, lacking nothing but a reason to live. Or watch him dedicating his life to earning more wealth, more wealth, more wealth, where money is an abstraction, and need something he or she never thinks about.
Watch the loving mother, nurturing her child, utterly lost in devotion. Watch the loving spouse, pulling the blankets up over his loved one, so she can sleep longer in peace.
Watch the sky, ever-changing, filled with light and shade, a million varieties of cloud, and a million points of light.
Listen to the birds, singing. Do you know them? They have voices. Who are they? Can you identify them?
I myself am of course a stupid and ridiculous man. This post is ridiculous. It is stupid.
I watch Christ being nailed up on the cross. After he is done screaming in pain, he turns to his neighbor and says “Some day, huh?” This makes me laugh; I don’t know why.
I told one of my children the other day that love is seeing people as they are, but accepting them as who they want to be, feeding their better angels. I think this is close to the truth.
I, I, I ,I: I don’t know entirely what I wanted to say here, but have decided to hit “post” anyway, in the hope that perhaps this may be a seed that sprouts under someone elses sky.