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Aaaaand just one more
Feb. 15th, 2009 01:07 amSo on Friday I walked down Bruin Walk in the rain to see if the Student Coalition for Marriage Equality was still doing their Valentine's Day information-and-more-table despite the downpour. They weren't, but there were some other things happening: one of the student health organisations had declared it "Free Condom Day" and were giving out little ziploc baggies with goodies inside (They gave me two goodie bags! I must look like a slut. Or at least someone who should be getting a lot of action. Oh, irony!) and one of the religious groups was using the offer of FREE CANDY to hand out notes about "God's love for you!"
The note is the reason for this post. I've been thinking about love a lot lately -- what it is, what it means, what I believe about it. Y'all know I'm not religious -- at least, not in any way wherein I believe in a higher power or even really agree with any aspect of the church I was raised to be a part of -- but I really do think 1 Corinthians 4-13 (excerpted in the note and reproduced below as it was given to me) might have it right:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails . . . And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It just... resonates properly with the ideas I have been forming about love. Which I actually started thinking more about this... summer? fall? Because of a *ahem* Torchwood fanfic I read. It's kind of epic, full of the time travel and the blaster fights and the gay sex, and it's here, but I'll quote the pertinent bit from the eleventh chapter. It's actually describing the attitude of a fictional polyamorous 51st century society toward love, but that's neither here nor there, and it also speaks to me:
“Oh, he loves me in a way, sure. But he loves all his team. But it’s not romantic love, just loyalty and friendship. It’s enough. I know there are different kinds of love.”
“Different kinds of love?” she said, looking startled. “That’s absurd. Love is all the same.”
“I mean like how you love your daughter is different from how you love your partner,” Ianto explained.
“No it’s not,” she said.
“Pardon?” It was Ianto’s turn to look startled.
“Is that what they think in the twenty-first century?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “How bizarre. Love is all the same, Ianto. What I feel for Kethan, for Opal, for Ashild. The feeling of love itself is just the same for all of them.”
[...]
“Then imagine this. It’s like a cell in the human body,” she said, gesturing up and down his body. “Every cell in your body has the same genetic material. But they differentiate, they specialize, they perform different duties based on what type of tissue they belong to. A neuron doesn’t act at all the same as a muscle cell or a skin cell. Do you follow?”
Ianto nodded, and she continued.
“You tell them apart, not by their genetic material, but by what kinds of proteins they produce, or how they are shaped, or what kind of organelles they have. I don’t tell my relationships apart by how I love them; that would be crazy. It’s all the other feelings that determine what kind of relationship we have; infatuation, physical attraction, parental protection, respect, genetic bonds. But not love. How can you measure that? How can you compare the love you have for one person with the love you have for another person?”
[...]
“I don’t know what you do in the twenty-first century, but here, love is something to be given away as much as possible, and Kethan has love in droves.”
Love is all the same. Love is something to be given away as much as possible. It always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres. The greatest of these is love.
Yes.
---
p.s. The contents of a Free Condom Day goodie bag are as follows:
- 3 condoms (all different brands, one of which is brightly coloured, the others are nondescript)
- 1 condom information/instruction slip
- 1 card with information about an emergency contraception pill
- 1 tiny packet of lube (this was my favourite bit. I mean, it was so tiny and adorable!)
because if I were reading my lj, I would want to know.
The note is the reason for this post. I've been thinking about love a lot lately -- what it is, what it means, what I believe about it. Y'all know I'm not religious -- at least, not in any way wherein I believe in a higher power or even really agree with any aspect of the church I was raised to be a part of -- but I really do think 1 Corinthians 4-13 (excerpted in the note and reproduced below as it was given to me) might have it right:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails . . . And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It just... resonates properly with the ideas I have been forming about love. Which I actually started thinking more about this... summer? fall? Because of a *ahem* Torchwood fanfic I read. It's kind of epic, full of the time travel and the blaster fights and the gay sex, and it's here, but I'll quote the pertinent bit from the eleventh chapter. It's actually describing the attitude of a fictional polyamorous 51st century society toward love, but that's neither here nor there, and it also speaks to me:
“Oh, he loves me in a way, sure. But he loves all his team. But it’s not romantic love, just loyalty and friendship. It’s enough. I know there are different kinds of love.”
“Different kinds of love?” she said, looking startled. “That’s absurd. Love is all the same.”
“I mean like how you love your daughter is different from how you love your partner,” Ianto explained.
“No it’s not,” she said.
“Pardon?” It was Ianto’s turn to look startled.
“Is that what they think in the twenty-first century?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “How bizarre. Love is all the same, Ianto. What I feel for Kethan, for Opal, for Ashild. The feeling of love itself is just the same for all of them.”
[...]
“Then imagine this. It’s like a cell in the human body,” she said, gesturing up and down his body. “Every cell in your body has the same genetic material. But they differentiate, they specialize, they perform different duties based on what type of tissue they belong to. A neuron doesn’t act at all the same as a muscle cell or a skin cell. Do you follow?”
Ianto nodded, and she continued.
“You tell them apart, not by their genetic material, but by what kinds of proteins they produce, or how they are shaped, or what kind of organelles they have. I don’t tell my relationships apart by how I love them; that would be crazy. It’s all the other feelings that determine what kind of relationship we have; infatuation, physical attraction, parental protection, respect, genetic bonds. But not love. How can you measure that? How can you compare the love you have for one person with the love you have for another person?”
[...]
“I don’t know what you do in the twenty-first century, but here, love is something to be given away as much as possible, and Kethan has love in droves.”
Love is all the same. Love is something to be given away as much as possible. It always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres. The greatest of these is love.
Yes.
---
p.s. The contents of a Free Condom Day goodie bag are as follows:
- 3 condoms (all different brands, one of which is brightly coloured, the others are nondescript)
- 1 condom information/instruction slip
- 1 card with information about an emergency contraception pill
- 1 tiny packet of lube (this was my favourite bit. I mean, it was so tiny and adorable!)
because if I were reading my lj, I would want to know.
