WRITINGS

Liking & Loving

Think you know what love is?

I love the fall of the year. I love lasagna. I love popcorn and a good movie. I love cool cucumber candles. I love old standards and show tunes. I love edgy music. I love Gospel music. I love country music. I love to hang with my kids. I love to brag about my kids. I love my kids. I love crawling in bed at the end of the day. I love crossing things off my task list. I love visiting with my parents. I love learning from my parents. I love my parents. I love driving alone through the mountains. I love to sing. I love to read. I love to drink coffee. I love to think about God. I love to talk to God. I love to listen for God. I love God. I love to run. I love to visit with friends. I love my friends. I love to talk with thinkers. I love to write. I love to observe politics. I love to watch basketball. I love to watch football. I love museums. I love to give to others. I love reminiscing. I love Christmas. I love my church. I love reunions. I love the circus. I love going barefoot. I love snowy days. I love sweater weather. I love tomatoes. I love the theatre. I love my job. I love opportunity. I love good TV. I love being a rebel. I love New York City. I love taking pictures. I love donuts. I love living in Lexington. I love talking about Kentucky. I love making people smile. I love promoting others. I love creating events. I love debating philosophy. I love shopping. I love passing the baseball. I love Mexican food. I love sitting and staring. I love watermelon. I love the moon. I love...

My list of loves is in no certain order, and there's certainly a lot more I can mention, I just can't think of all of them right now. Sometimes the obvious seems to allude you when you're making a list. And as I mentioned, this one lacks rhyme or anything resembling an order of value to me.

If my list were in order I'd certainly have put God at the beginning. He lets me enjoy all of my other loves. My kids and my parents would be next on the list. They have a certain kind of love that is different than the rest. I mentioned lasagna because I am hungry. The cucumber candle happens to be burning as I write. The longer the day, the more I love that leap into bed. You know how it is. Sometimes you love certain things more than other things and at other times. Sometimes you're just not in the mood to read or eat watermelon. Maybe we're saying we love things that we really only crave, or enjoy, or just like.

Lasagna can't love you back. It might make you feel good, but in the end it's showing you no more love than it would anyone else. The same with a good song, or a drive through the woods. Love them as you might, nothing on my list, or yours, can prove its love like another human, or God himself.

I embarrass my kids when I tell them or show them that I love them, especially in front of their friends. They're teenagers. I don't take it personally. Sometimes I've made it difficult for my parents to claim me as their son, but they never disowned me and have always loved me. I have a handful of friends, true friends, who've kept me close when false-friends shut me out. I am blessed with enough humans who I truly love, and who love me back, to make me feel rich with kinship and friendship.

As much as I'd like to call myself Love, I'm afraid I can't. I don't qualify to be love's originator, crafter, architect, displayer, conductor, developer, disseminator, provider... That would be God. Not only is He all of those things (and more than the www has room for), you can go all the way and just say that He is love. He did.

Oh yeah, I also love peanut M&Ms.