Love, Love, Love

I hope those of you who read this post will indulge me as I simply write about Love, not necessarily in regard to any particular book or article. Again, I offer this in the spirit of the original essayists, who would use this form to think on paper and try out ideas and concepts. These are the somewhat coherent thoughts of someone writing on a dark, cold, and windy Sunday evening.
I suppose I could start with the famous Chapter 13 from 1st Corinthians about Love that seems to be read at most Christian weddings. I find it among the most poetic passages in the Pauline letters, but is Love that black and white. I wonder if the couples who choose this passage consider the full context of these words.
"1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Is it really true that if I have faith, but not love then "I am nothing." Love never fails, but many of these marriages do, right? Does love always persevere? I realize that Paul make be expressing "Agape", God's love for humanity, but I think we as humans tend to put this in our own terms, don't we? I don't know if Love always perseveres, but I do know that it evolves and changes as do relationships. In fact, as the passage notes, we too have to mature and put away childish things, even sometimes our notions of what Love is and what it does.
 After nearly 18 years of marriage, I still love my wife, but that Love is not necessarily the same type of Love that first brought us together. We have had so many experiences and changes to our lives that I don't think the Love could be the same. Our circle of Love has expanded to include not only the two of us, but our three children as well.
If you have paid attention you will see that I continue to capitalize Love. This is intentional, because I think it is important enough and powerful enough to deserve that distinction. However, I do this in part to also call attention to the fact that Love is a powerful force to be reckoned with. It is not merely the shallow sentiment found in greeting cards and Hummel figurines, it one of the elemental forces of our universe. I often prefer to think of Love as the Ancient Greeks did when they personified it as Eros. Even today in words like "erotic", we see the darker, dangerous, and sensual connotations of this term. Pardon the pun, but this type of love is not to be fucked with.
I can intellectual appreciate what Paul is saying by placing Love above both faith and hope, but I don't know about that. For me, I cannot imagine Love without faith and hope. Being in love and staying in love requires large elements of both faith and hope. If you don't have faith in what you love, the Love is never going to last. It seems to me that this is why Love can and often does persevere. Similarly, hope is for me an essential component of what keeps love going to. Who doesn't hope that their Love will stand the test of time? However, even these concepts leave us with an incomplete sense of what Love is. Love isn't some Platonic ideal state that just sort of finds you and the object(s) of your affection. You hve to work damned hard on your Love. And if you don't all the faith and hope won't keep that Love alive.
To conclude with a thought similar to that of Paul, I'll quote the Beatles who once sang, "All you need is love, love, love is all you need." Still not sure that's all you need, but it is a helluva start.

Peace and Love,

Czar