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A History
of Love
Love. What a small word we use for an
idea so immense and powerful it has
altered the flow of history, calmed
monsters, kindled works of art,
cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys
to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven
strong women mad, glorified the
humble, fueled national scandals,
bankrupted robber barons, and made
mincemeat of kings. How can love's
spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow
confines of one syllable?...Love is an
ancient delirium, a desire older than
civilization, with taproots stretching
deep into dark and mysterious
days.....
The heart is a living museum. In each
of its galleries, no matter how narrow
or dimly lit, preserved forever like
wondrous diatoms, are our moments of
loving and being liked.
A Marriage
By
Michael Blumenthal
You are
holding up a ceiling with both
arms. It is very heavy,
but you must hold it up, or else it
will fall down on you. Your arms
are tired, terribly tired, and, as the
day goes on, it feels as if either
your arms or the ceiling will soon
collapse.
But then, unexpectedly, something
wonderful happens: Someone, a man or a
woman, walks into the room and holds
their arms up to the ceiling beside
you.
So you finally get to take down your
arms. You feel the relief of respite,
the blood flowing back to your fingers
and arms. And when your partner's arms
tire, you hold up your own to relieve
him again.
And it can go on like this for many
years without the house falling.
Art of
Marriage
The
little things are the big things. It
is never being too old to hold
hands. It is remembering to say "I
love you" at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry. It
is at no time taking the other for
granted; the courtship should not end
with the honeymoon, it should continue
through all the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values
and common objectives. It is standing
together facing the world. It is
forming a circle of love that gathers
in the whole family. It is doing
things for each other, not in the
attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in
the spirit of joy.
It is speaking words of appreciation
and demonstrating gratitude in
thoughtful ways. It is not expecting
the husband to wear a halo or the wife
to have wings of an angel. It is not
looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility,
patience, understanding and a sense of
humor. It is having the capacity to
forgive and forget. It is giving each
other an atmosphere in which each can
grow.
It is finding room for the things of
the spirit. It is a common search for
the good and the beautiful. It is
establishing a relationship in which
the independence is equal, dependence
is mutual and the obligation is
reciprocal. It is not only marrying
the right partner, it is being the
right partner.
QUOTE:
Excerpt from "The Velveteen Rabbit
BY Margery Williams
"What
is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day,
when they were lying side by side near
the nursery fender, before Nana came
to tidy the room. "Does it mean having
things that buzz inside you and a
stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said
the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that
happens to you. When a child loves you
for a long, long time, not just to
play with, but Really loves you, then
you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for
he was always truthful. "When you are
Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like
being wound up," he asked, "or bit by
bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said
the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes
a long time. That's why it doesn't
happen often to people who break
easily, or have sharp edges, or who
have to be carefully kept. Generally,
by the time you are Real, most of your
hair has been loved off, and your eyes
drop out and you get all loose in the
joints and very shabby. But these
things don't matter at all, because
once you are Real you can't be ugly,
except to people who don't
understand."
QUOTE:
EXCERPT FROM TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
By Mitch Albom
“Still,” Morrie said, “there are a few
rules I know to be true about love and
marriage: If you don’t respect the
other person, you’re gonna have a lot
of trouble. If you don’t know how to
compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of
trouble. If you can’t talk openly
about what goes on between you, you’re
gonna have a lot of trouble. And if
you don’t have a common set of values
in life, you’re gonna have a lot of
trouble. Your values must be alike.
“And the biggest one of those values,
Mitch?”
Yes?
“Your belief in the importance of your
marriage.”
He sniffed, then closed his eyes for a
moment.
“Personally,” he sighed, his eyes
still closed, “I think marriage is a
very important thing to do, and you’re
missing a lot if you don’t try it.”
He ended the subject by quoting a poem
he believed in like a prayer: “Love
each other or perish.”
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