Love

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

Enjoy that, because it may be the last time I quote the Bible (I think it might be the first time too). I'm certainly not going to do it for FFF this week; I was just saying that to have a bit of fun. This week you'll be getting something far more terrible than Bible verses.

The lines above get said a lot at weddings. Maybe it's supposed to remind the happy couple what they're signing up for. Maybe it's just a good bit of the book to quote, as opposed to the more hellfire and brimstone passages (although I've been to at least one wedding where the latter were relied upon extensively as fodder for the priest). Maybe it's tradition.

But I think it's a damn shame, because Paul wasn't talking to the Corinthians about weddings. There are weddings in the Bible, and this passage isn't about them at all. This passage is part of a larger whole talking about the necessity for loving one's fellow man in order to love God (or something; I'm not a theologian, I just work here). Which is a wonderful sentiment, really; love of others is indeed a great thing, and if you go in for deities, I wouldn't worship one which said, "Hating your fellow man is the best way to love me." But the passage is translated often enough as "charity" instead of "love." I like "love" better, because "charity" sounds like a canned food drive being long-suffering, humble, and trusting. But it's not about weddings, and in many cases, weddings aren't about love anyway.

Which is too bad, because Paul was right. Love is all of those things. Or rather, all of those things are love. Loving someone means all of those things and more.

So why is it so damn hard? Why is the greatest thing in human existence so skull-fuckingly, ball-bustingly, gut-punchingly hard? Maybe the only good things are hard things.