I have been trying to write about love since the Cold War.
For some reason I am infatuated with infatuation and even more enveloped with the concept of love. The world around me is telling me that love is real when it is on Instagram or expressed with a ring, or through sex. All of that really upsets me honestly, because I am not a big fan of rings, I don’t really think I am ready to share my body with somebody, nor do I Instagram all too well. However, I believe love is why we are here- to spread it, to experience it.
To my millennial friends, who claim they were “born in the wrong era” yet still seem to cling to the distasteful definition of love that our society has conjured up, I have thought a lot on love and I want to share my findings.
I think love is when it feels like you’re seeing The Jonas Brothers in concert for the very first time as 13 year old you, every time you see that person. Your hands raise up in excitement, your eyes brighten and you feel infinite. The melody of their heartbeat sounds like Joe Jonas’s voice engulfing the room that is your body in the best way possible. Your body aches with adrenaline and your mind doesn’t think about life or what t-shirt you'll get afterwards-- just about grounding yourself in that moment for as long as you can.
I think love is a sleepover with your best friend and a julep on the front porch. Both of which are the most amaranthine things that exist. Nothing will make their value decrease, not even time. Love is sipping chocolate milk at 2am, quoting Friends, and gossiping all while feeling like the world is existing just for the two of you. Love is swinging on the porch sipping sweet things, feeling the sun on your shoulders while your uncle is arguing with your mom about politics. It is comfort. It is inextinguishable- just like best friend sleepovers and front porch hangs.
Johnny Cash said it best when he told us about him walking the line. I think love is walking a line. A really scary one. But it is a walk that you take because you believe in the person that is on the other side of that line. It isn’t a walk in the park but it is a walk that you take because you know that a bigger force is going to be there when you fall. To help the both of you dust off and keep on walking.
Love is slam poetry. Everything about it is passionate and driven. It goes on for far too long and some people just don’t comprehend it. However, the poet never seems to care; for in that moment, all they feel like they will ever care about is that slam poetry in front of them.
Love is a long car ride to in the Midwest. All the while you are driving wondering where are we going? What is happening? There are stops along the way, but the majority of it is progressive. Love is moving forward, growing, and pushing through the miles of cornfields.
Love is waiting an entire school year for summer. Love is waiting for the cast of Friends to have a reunion. Love is the fourteen years Jacob waited for Rachel. Love is the previews before the movie. Love is the steps up before you get to take the picture on the mountain. Do you get it? Love is waiting. Be patient.
Love is like a blizzard. The best ones come out of nowhere and hit hard. Blizzards quiet the world. People gather around windows and watch the beauty that results in what seems could have been a tragedy.
Ya’ll love is when the only game involved is monopoly. Instead of playing the copious amounts of games that society has conjured up for us to somehow conquer with our editing apps and Facebook likes, it is just people sitting on a living room floor playing monopoly, talking about all the games they hope to play together in the future. Love is rooted in honesty and simplicity.
A lot of people think that love is when a person just makes another person happy. If it was that simple, I’d be in love with so many guys right now. Unfortunately, everybody needs to make themselves happy. Love is the added bonus of sharing that happiness with somebody else.
Ultimately, love is when your partner wants to invite you in. Into their relationship with Christ, their relationship with their family, and their relationship with the world around them. Love is not something founded on “I will be better.” Nah, real love is founded on the same principle the Jesus played up for us what seems like forever ago. Real love is “I love you right now, in this mess, outside of this mess, and I will be delighting in your journey and fighting for your happiness along the way.” Love is the pursuit of showing people Jesus in good times and bad and pushing them and believing in them throughout that pursuit.
Love is so different in all cultures. As for me and mine, I have seen a big clearance sticker put on love so many times. With the internet and the desire to have something as soon as possible, love has turned into something that Trump is probably upset that he didn’t manufacture. I assume that quite a bit of people in my culture have felt love, but very few have felt Love. My hope is that someday, the concept of love shines as bright as it does in my head.
All of these examples of love could possibly not apply to everybody. But the one thing that stands tall when it comes to love is this: love is without a doubt when you are willing to put your whole heart into one place. If we held on to this bold fact every time we wanted to scream the loaded word, would we be able to finally watch love rise from the ashes and rest in the collarbones of the ones whom also rest with our whole hearts?
