Skip to main content

What is Love?



Estragon: Don’t touch me! Don’t question me! Don’t speak to me! Stay with me!

Vladimir: Did I ever leave you?

Estragon: You let me go.

The above dialogue is from Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot. Love is an abiding presence. It is not merely about not leaving; it is also about not letting the beloved go. Love is a binding force. But at the same time it is a liberating force too. Love binds you with a chain and at the same time it liberates you more than anything else ever can.

There is a scene in the classic book, The Little Prince. A fox approaches the Little Prince with a strange request. “Tame me,” the fox says. “What is taming?” The Little Prince asks. “Taming means to establish ties,” explains the fox. When you tame me, you become responsible for me. Every loving relationship is the embrace of a tremendous responsibility.

When the fox wanted to be tamed, it was seeking a place in the Prince’s heart. It longed for the Prince’s attention, an investment of time by the Prince. When I love you, I invest myself in you. You become special because of my love.

One of the most striking descriptions of love can be found in the Bible (1 Corinthians 13). You may be the best orator in the world, able to move the mountains with the power of your eloquence, but if you do not have love in your heart you are only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal, says Paul. You may be a scholar, prophet, mass leader, but if you are not guided by love you are as hollow as a blown-up balloon.

Love makes all the difference. Love is a miracle. It can transmute any reality. Love can breathe life into a granite statue. It can make the reed in the wilderness sing melodiously. Love can transform horrendous ugliness into sublime beauty.

In the words of the biblical Paul, love is patient and kind. It does not envy, does not boast, it is not proud. It never dishonours the others. It is not self-seeking, not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always persevered.”

Love bears a burden insofar as it has to protect, trust, hope and persevere. Love bears a burden insofar as it is the taking of responsibility for the other. But it never feels any burden. Because where there is love, there are no burdens. There is only love. There is no leaving; there is no letting go.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 398: Love bears a burden and feels no burden. Your reflection on it in the form of an essay or poem or whatever. #LoveBurden

Comments

  1. The Moon's BOYFRIEND December 6, 2021 at 2:28 PM

    Love... one will literally do anything with love and feel like he never did anything. Crush mountains, tame seas and he still stands high... restlessly to give more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 6, 2021 at 2:56 PM

      There's poetry in your words. Why not wtite a love poem?

      Delete
  2. Yamini MacLeanDecember 6, 2021 at 4:22 PM

    Hari OM
    Amen to that!!! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. rupam sarmaDecember 7, 2021 at 9:32 AM

    Beautiful

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rajeev MoothedathDecember 7, 2021 at 1:39 PM

    A lovely post on "Love" the most important emotion that propels life itself..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 7, 2021 at 3:45 PM

      Thanks, Rajeev. I'm looking forward to your poem on the prompt.

      Delete
  5. Anupama JoshyDecember 11, 2021 at 8:24 AM

    So soothing! The stars are beautiful because of a flower that cannot be seen!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...
12 comments
Read more

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a cliché. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...
7 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...
6 comments
Read more

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 comments
Read more