Sitting upon my shelf for over a year now has been a book, one of many given to me by a dear, well-read friend. I finally pulled it down, and it was my principle reading for this last week at the Jersey Shore.This was one of the most unexpected treasures I have come upon in the last year. Are you interested at all in Mediterranean culture? In the history of the Axis powers in World War II? In classical music, cuisine, Ancient Greek literature, foreign curse words or budding, young love?
Or mature love. A widower's love as he explains it to his daughter. A love that wants love to be real and grow beyond mere passion. Two-thirds through the exquisitely written pages I read this, and found in it a pearl of striking wisdom:
"Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and
then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to
work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable
that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not
breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of
eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second of the day, it is not
lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No,
don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which
any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned
away, and this is both an art and a fortunate
accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each
other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms had fallen from our branches
we found that we were one tree and not two." -Louis de Bernieres, Corelli's Mandolin, chapt. 47
On a related note, read this article from the Wild Reed blog concerning the role of Eros in relationships with God, and its role in spiritual relationships with partners and spouses:
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