Some sayings I like.
Some I use unthinkingly, until at some point I ask, “What am I saying?” Some I
reject completely. Such is the case with the phrase, “There’s no love lost
between them.” People say “There’s no love lost between A and B” when A doesn’t
like B and B hates A. Neither one has any use for the other. “No love lost,” as
if love were a substance or commodity that I can expend on someone, like a
twenty-dollar bill or a box of chocolates. “Go down to the corner store and get
me $15 worth of love, so that I can use it up (lose it?) on a friend.” The
whole concept of losing love by giving it is ridiculous. In fact it is the
opposite of the truth.
Love is not a
commodity, not a substance that can be grabbed out of the air. Love is
something I, you, you and I, have the unutterable privilege of creating. It is
a choice—the choice to love. I choose to love you. I choose to treat you with
love and respect. I choose to have affection for you.
There are, of course,
many definitions of love, many expressions of love, many types of love. It is
my belief that normally when people say “no love lost” they are referring to
the friendship type of personal attachment and affection, the liking of someone
else, or at least love of all humanity expressed in basic human kindness and compassion,
if not full-blown sacrificial love. In any case, and by any definition, love is
not lost when expressed. It is created. It is increased. It is amplified. If I
love you, it doesn’t mean I love anyone else any less. It simply means more
love has been created with which to love you. Loving one daughter in no way
decreases my love for the other two, nor does loving them lessen the love I
have for my son, the love I create for my son. Neither does it decrease my love
for my wife.
This is such a
wonderful concept, it is a shame our modern world has no conception of it, as attested
to by this wretched phrase, “no love lost between those two.” It is when two
people do not love one another that love is lost. When they love one another,
love is created.
Much has been written
about free will over the centuries, a lot of it negative, but the ability to
self-actuate, to move oneself to activity, to choose a course of action, is a
great privilege. We choose to think, we choose to speak, we choose to do. Every
time we do so, we create. We bring something into being that did not exist
prior to our choice. What a privilege. What a joy! What a miracle.
Of course, this puts
the onus on us, not G-d or gods or evil or the devil or the universe or the guy
down the street (or in the White House), but us, you and me, to think and speak
and do what is right and good and just and worthy of praise and beneficial. It
is up to us—in a word—to love! What a blessedness. What a joy divine! Choosing
to create love.
In closing, I just
want to say a word about our loving children and children-in-law. They live
this, and what’s more, they are teaching their children to live this. They
treat their families, their friends, their co-workers, their associates, their
acquaintances, and every one they meet with love, affection, kindness,
compassion, friendship, to the greatest extent possible in every situation. In
short, THERE IS NO LOVE LOST with these guys. They don’t expend it. They don’t
lose it. They create it and share it and shower it on others.
For that I give
thanks to the ultimate Giver of love, the Eternal, the All-Wise, the
“without-which-not” of all existence, from whom all blessings flow! Amen.
Here’s how “The
Message” puts it, in the immortal words of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian
church:
“Love
never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love
never dies.”
It
never gets used up!
Happy
Valentine’s Day, everybody!
