Thursday, January 11, 2007 All we need is love By Henrylito D. Tacio Regarding Henry
"THE person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being," Pearl S. Buck once wrote. "His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration."
The award-winning author, of course, was talking about love. Marguerite De Valois readily agrees: "Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and stretching the weak; making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favoring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy."
It seems that everyone has his or her own idea about love. Mark Twain said, "Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."
Oliver Wendell Holmes thinks: "Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."
William Shakespeare, the father of English literature, wrote: "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes. Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, a choking gall and a preserving sweet."
Those who have experienced love have words of wisdom to share. Hollywood actor Woody Allen states, "To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down."
British singer John Lennon offered: "We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it."
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa urges: "Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to a wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor."
Love, so goes a song, comes from the most unexpected places. This happened to Lt. John Blanchard, a soldier in basic training in Florida during World War II. One evening, he wandered into the post library and found a book to read. The feminine handwriting in the margins intrigued him, so he turned to the front of the book and found the name of the previous owner -- a certain Miss Hollis Maynell.
Blanchard did some research and found her address in New York. The following day, he was shipped overseas. For 13 months, the two corresponded by letter and started to open their hearts to each other.
He asked for her picture, to which she refused by saying that if he really loved her it wouldn't matter what she looked like.
To make the long story short, the two decided to meet each other in Grand Central Station in New York City. "You'll recognize me by the red rose that I'll be wearing on my lapel," she told him in her letter. (If only there were cellular phones at that time!!!)
So, what happened next? Blanchard tells the rest of the story in his own words: "A young woman was coming toward me, beautiful, trim, blonde, eyes were blue as flowers, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her forgetting that she was not wearing the rose -- and then I saw Hollis Maynell!
She was standing behind the girl. A woman with graying hair. But she wore a red rose on the rumpled brown lapel of her coat. So deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had captured me that I approached her. There she stood, face was gentle and sensible and her gray eyes had a twinkle. I didn't hesitate. My hand gripped the small worn blue leather book, which was to identify me to her.
"I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman while choking back the bitterness of disappointment. 'I'm Lt. John Blanchard and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad to meet you. My I take you to dinner?' "The woman's face broadened into a smile. 'I don't know what this is about son,' she answered, 'but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, asked me to wear this rose. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the large restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!'"
Was it Erica Jong who said, "Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That' s why people are so cynical about it... It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more."
