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Written by Richard Mbuthia
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Sunday, 13 May 2007 |
Love is everywhere: the airwaves (radio & TV music), cyberspace, magazines, books, and one-on-one encounters. It is simply everywhere. I started hearing the 'love' phrase when I was an adolescent.
Scores of adolescent boys and girls could be seen skirting around in
dark places at night probably to meet their 'dates' at their
pre-arranged rendezvous. In my day, there were no mobile phones to ease
communication. We just had to wait for our 'girls' and hope against all
hope that they would turn up otherwise our 'dare devil' antics would
just go to waste. Don't even mention all the priceless things we wasted
in our quest to look macho.
We wasted our time, energy, good old virginity, and the chance to
understand the dynamics of the most wonderful word in the world – love.
In retrospect, though, I am happy that I went through adolescence in
those years. Today, everything is so different. The moral guard has
been slackened far too much that most of the things that were
considered no-brainers in my day are part of the normal lives of people
nowadays.
The airwaves are 'rotten' – what with music that upholds immorality and
the overuse of the ‘love’ word without meaning any bit of it. Please
don't mention the internet and its sisters. Appalling is the word to
use here. Recently I came across a story that, to me, seemed to leap
from the page and shout aloud about the true meaning of love. I have
reproduced it here for us to have a rethink about this word that we
have taken for granted far too long:
There was a young couple, Della and Jim, who were very much in love.
Each had one unique possession. Della's hair was her glory. When she
let it down it almost served her as her robe. Jim, on the other hand,
had a gold watch which had come to him from his father and which was
his pride.
It was the day before Christmas, and Della had exactly one dollar
eighty seven cents to buy Jim a present. She did the only thing she
could do. She went out and sold her hair for twenty dollars. And with
the proceeds she bought a platinum fob for Jim's precious watch. Jim
came home at night, when he saw Della's shorn head he stopped as if
stupefied. It was not that he did not like it or did not love her
anymore. She was lovelier than ever. Slowly he handed her his gift. His
gift was a set of expensive tortoise-shell combs and he had sold his
gold watch to buy them for her.
Each had given the other all he or she had to give. Real love cannot
think of any other way to give. This, I think, is the true meaning of
love: Giving your best for the benefit of another person without asking
what you'll get out of it.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 May 2007 )
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