Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Love is...

Sonnet 116-The Marriage of True Minds

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alter not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

-William Shakespeare


Ah, yes. Shakespeare got it right. Love does not change when the object of its affection changes or faulters. True love, especially married love, supports and encourages during difficult times. When two young people marry, it is possible to look forward to 40-50 years of togetherness and during those years adversity WILL come and people WILL change, but love hangs on thru it all. Being human, we will fail at times in loving our spouse, but if we take the attitude of loving "for better or for worse" (unconditionally), we are more likely to see our marriages last. What usually begins as physical attraction must mature into a "marriage of true minds"; a marriage based not exclusively on feeling, but on an active, loving commitment towards another person. And believe it or not, this is where the true romance lies.