thoughts inspired by love songs

 

    I don't like buying cards.  First, they are expensive and I think, "I could just send that person $5.00".  But I never send the fiver and as much as I complain over the price of cards, I like to get them so I am sure that others do too. Ever read Donald Duck and The Magic Mailbox?  I like to think that my mailbox is magic (sometimes evil magic because of the bills. . .)
   The second reason is because I always want to say the perfect thing.  That is not an easy thing to do and I agonize over it way too much.
     Jarrad, on the other hand, can always find the perfect card.  Maybe because he spends about 10 times longer looking at cards than I do.  So I am pretty sure that on Valentine's Day, I will get a card that makes me cry.  (No pressure Honey!)
    Have you heard the Justin Bieber song "As Long As You Love Me?"  No?  Look it up on YouTube.  The version I saw was very melodramatic.  The song itself is good but these words sung by this. . .this child lack the depth that someone who is older and has more experience with LIFE would give the words (and the music video just makes it ridiculous).  I guess it is targeted to adolescent, starry eyed girls but really, the words are better than that.
   Don't get me wrong, I would never tell a young person that they don't know what love is; they do.  As far as their life experience goes, they do.  BUT they don't understand the depth of love that I do - just as I don't understand the depth of love that my parents have or that my grandparents have.  That's why for a teenie bopper to sing something such as: "As you love me we could be starving, we could be homeless, we could be broke, As long as you love me." rings false because they have absolutely no clue.  
     I remember a former babysitter moved out of her folk's home into an apartment even though she knew her boyfriend was going to ask her to marry him.  Why not save the money?  Because she wanted to have some experience living on her own first.  For better or for worse.  In sickness or in health.  Those are words that aren't taken seriously.  How can they be when you have always been taken care of and don't really understand the taking care of part?  
    The kind of love that cards talk about on Valentine's Day, the kind of love that most songs sing about is the love that is inspired by marriage vows.  That love roots deeper with every passing day; it says even in the midst of the for worse part, that you would do it all over again. That is the love that "older" folks mean when they say, "You don't know what love is."  
    Love is not a something you fall into, it is something that you grow into.  If you "fall out of love" then I don't think you really understood it in the first place.