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Love Has Teeth

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (I Corinthians 13:1-3)

            Love has sometimes been portrayed as a frilly, fragile thing, or a primal, primitive thing with everyone sitting around campfires in the evening at Woodstock just enjoying being there with everyone. We don't tend to like to think of love as slavery, or as what we do when the beloved one is at his/her darkest or ugliest. Love is for the clean, neat, and well-behaved, not for the one who hasn't taken a shower in two weeks and wanders into the bedroom scratching  and smacking his lips and belching over  the fried chicken you planned for dinner tonight. It's not for the one who doesn't remember who you are and no longer seems to be able to make it to the restroom, or doesn't bother.
           Except, those unlovelies are precisely what love is about. It's easy to be fond of someone who is doing everything just right, but love isn't for wimps. Love is laying down your life for someone else. Love isn't a flower, it's a pit bull that does not let go easily. All the talk of easy love and free love is a lie. It is a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. It is nothing and gains nothing. This is why "love" isn't "love." Love doesn't wear flip flops or  dancing shoes, it wears work boots.

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