I came across this story recently. I wonder how each of us would answer the question, “what is love?” It would take quite a lot of thought on my part to try and verbalise what I think, inside of myself, about love. But, I do rather like the second, editor’s, answer in this story. What about you, which do you think comes closest to your feelings, or would you give a different answer altogether?
The Love Poem
A young writer went to an editor with some poems he had written, hoping he could get them published. He told the editor that they were love poems. The editor questioned the writer: “Well, what is love? Tell me.”
“Love,” said this young fellow, casting his eyes heavenward, “is gazing upon a lily pond at night, by the shimmering moonbeams, when the lilies are in full bloom and the air is filled with fragrance, and …”
The editor interrupted him. “Stop! You are all wrong, very, very wrong. I will tell you what love is. It is getting up cheerfully out of a warm bed on a cold winter night at 2 a.m. to heat the milk for your baby’s feeding. It is preparing a meal for a family when the mother is sick and the children are hungry.” He went on to say: “Real love is doing something for somebody at some inconvenience to ourselves.”
About Paul Sibley
Andrew Gosden (now 18) has been missing from his Doncaster home since 14 September 2007. The search continues.
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