Some Thoughts On Love

Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish, it does not take offence, is is not resentful.

Love takes no pleasure in other peoples sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

Love does not come to an end. - Corinthians 13:4-8 Jerusalem Bible.

Henry Constable  - Damelus' Song to Diaphenia
Diaphenia, like the daffadowndilly, 
White as the sun, fair as the lily, 
          Heigh ho, how I do love thee! 
I do love thee as my lambs 
Are belovëd of their dams—
          How blest were I if thou wouldst prove me!
          
Diaphenia, like the spreading roses, 
That in thy sweets all sweets incloses, 
Fair sweet, how I do love thee! 
I do love thee as each flower 
Loves the sun's life-giving power, 
For, dead, thy breath to life might move me.
          
Diaphenia, like to all things blessed, 
When all thy praises are expressëd, 
Dear joy, how I do love thee! 
As the birds do love the spring, 
Or the bees their careful king,—
Then in requite, sweet virgin, love me!
 

Lay down my dear brother,
lay down and take your rest.
Why don't you lay your head upon your Saviour's breast?
I love you, O but Jesus loves you the best and I bid you
goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.

First verse of a traditional Gospel song.

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies:
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes.

~ Lord Byron. ~

• Alas! the love of women! it is known to be a lovely and fearful thing. ~ Lord Byron. ~

• If love be good, from whennes comth my woe? ~ Geoffrey Chaucer. ~

• When povertie comes in at doores, love leaps out at windowes. ~ John Clark. ~

• First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity: no really self-respecting woman would take advantage of it. ~ George Bernard Shaw. ~

• "Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain." ~ Leo Buscaglia ~

• "Wild Nights! Wild Nights! were I with thee. Wild Nights would be our luxury. Futile the winds to a heart in port, Gone with the compass Gone with the chart--Rowing in Eden. Ah the Sea! Might I but moor-- Tonight in thee." ~ Emily Dickinson ~

• "Tenderness emerges from the fact that the two persons, longing,as all individuals do, to overcome the separateness and isolation to which we are all heir because we are individuals, can participate in a relationship that, for the moment, is not of two isolated selves but a union." ~ Rollo May ~

• I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. ~ James Joyce ~

• Love and war are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in one as in the other.
  Cevantes.

I once read a very well thought out article in Readers Digest that explained why war was a logical extention of love. I didn't agree with it then and I still don't now.

History shows that most wars are caused by greed, not love.

Have a look through this war song by Billy Joel and see if you can find anything about love ~ because I can't.

Goodnight Saigon

We met as soul mates on Parris Island
We left as inmates from an asylum.
And we were sharp, as sharp as knives
And we were so gung-ho to lay down our lives.

We came in spastic like untamed horses
We left in plastic as numbered corpses.
And we learned fast to travel light,
Our arms were heavy but our bellies were tight.

We had no home front, We had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy, they gave us Bob Hope.
We dug in deep, and shot on sight,
And prayed to Jesus Christ with all of our might.

We had no cameras to shoot the landscape,
We passed the hash pipe, and played our Door's tapes.
And it was dark, so dark at night,
And we held on to each other, like brother to brother
And promised our mothers we'd write.

And we would all go down together,
Yes we would all go down together
Remember Charlie, remember Baker,
They left their childhood on every acre.
And who was wrong? And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight.

We held the day in the palm of our hands.
They ruled the night
And the night seemed to last as long as six weeks on Parris Island.
We held the coastline, they held the highlands,
And they were sharp, as sharp as knives.
They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive.

And we would all go down together
We said we would all go down together,
Yes, we would all go down together.