Love
Defining love is a futile attempt undertaken by humans since the beginning of time. Everyone seems to have a definition. Everyone seems to know or completely ignore what love is. People try to explain a source, a location in the human psyche, a physical location, a recipe, the actions that define love, and a justification for all the above. Many books have been written about it. Movies try to portray so many versions of love that generally end up being one of the same, some for good and some not so good, but generally focusing on the fairytale love.
One movie comes to mind: Love Story. This movie was filmed in 1970. I was born in 1975 but didn’t watch this movie until late 1980s I think. Or was it 1990s? I don’t remember that specific detail. I do remember that I was at my grandparents’ house and heard the famous music, so I decided to watch the movie. I found myself swimming in my tears as the credits began to show. Only a few times in my life I cried so much specially watching a movie. Why did she have to die? I also cried watching the 1994 version of Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein also had issues with death and people dying, but I didn’t cry about that. I cried when ‘the monster’ was attacked by the son of the old man after he was the one who saved the old man from attackers. Not to mention that he saved the family from starvation and restored the harvest. It felt unfair to me.
Death, attack, unfairness, and sacrifice are the definitions of the love I came to know in Jesus Christ. Because he loved me first. I saw the example in my parents and my family growing up. I keep trying to learn to love that way. That love holds my marriage and family together and I hope my kids learn that too and pass it along to their families in due time. People are going to die, we are going to be attacked for what we believe and the way we live, life is not fair, we have to sacrifice many things and even our own lives, and still not understand such an amazing love. Love is so hard to comprehend that it is easier to fall for love that is fake, distorted, selfish, and transient.
It is very possible that half of the people who see my work ask this question: How long does it take to finish something like this? I take it as an honest question. We humans are trapped inside the clock. Even when traveling to another place we don’t ask how far it is waiting for a response in miles or kilometers. We want to know how far it is in time measures: “How long does it take to get there?” We create deadlines in an attempt to beat time. The workplace establishes a shift based on hours. In many of these places it is of little importance quality and production than the time spent there. We are measuring nanoseconds to switch from one screen to another with a touch of a finger and we panic if takes “too long”. Even sharing a cup of coffee with someone is based on how much time they have for us at that moment. It seems that control is leaving us out of control and ripping away some of our humanity.
The measure of time in art is not about how long it takes to make, but how long it took the artist to master the technique to make it happen. It is about how long it took to study and understand how to turn the idea into life. Time for the artist is about thinking how to pour the self on that piece. I can finish a painting in an hour or two, but it took a long time to get to that point. Even so with sculpting. I can finish a sculpture in a day but it took many years of practice, effort and sacrifice to reach a comfort level of my technique. However, the joy of creating and the bliss of the moment should not be shortened or retrained by time. The feeling is too good to rush.
The New Adventure Begins
Today the new adventure begins. New experiences can be very scary but others can be very exciting. Our new adventure is more of the second without taking away a little of the first. For many years our daughter has been asking for a dog. We could not have it back were we used to live but we managed to let her have a hamster who is the baby of house. Tommy has been with us for almost 2 years. He has his own Instagram account, is potty-trained, and takes naps with us. We learned to recognize when he needs the bathroom, when he is thirsty, when he is hungry, and when he just wants to cuddle. He even recognizes when we call his name. Yes, I’m still talking about the hamster.
This was the deal. We promised our daughter that as soon as we moved to a place where dogs were permitted we could get her one if she demonstrated good care of Tommy. She has been amazing. Today we are picking up our new family member. His name is Percy, a 7 months old shih tzu we have never met. I guess online dating took a very interesting turn. We are all very excited to meet Percy. I think it is going to be a great experience for all of us.
One thing we can learn from our daughter’s experience is that “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” (Luke 16:10). We all have to jump on doing great things and show what we are capable of in a larger scale that we get the chance too. Maybe we need to start small and be faithful and responsible in those little things. Our hard work will be rewarded in due time. Certain sacrifices can be blessings disguised.