To the male reader, I have one thing to say to you all: if you do not care for your significant other (assuming you have one), then you should examine yourself immediately for you need attention. There is nothing more horrible than seeing a woman feel unwanted or unloved. Men experience such feelings as well, but men are bred to work and to fight. Women are the heart to humankind—so to shred their love is to physically tear at the material with which they are constructed. No one—absolutely no one—ought to be treated as if they do not matter. No one ought to feel unwanted. Society has taught men to be “cool” and to be “rough”—as if for some reason, however ludicrous and perverse, people think women actually desire such traits. Women as well as men want a partner that is strong and able to contribute to the building of the relationship—to be “tough” as it were—but no person desires someone who is so out of touch with their own heart as to disregard their partner for the sake of idolizing being a “bread winner.” To the whole and utter contrary, there is one thing and one thing alone that all of humanity desires; humankind’s artwork, humankind’s current obsession with sex and sexuality, and much of humankind’s literature, poetry, music, movies, and conversations evidence this. Humanity desires but to be truly loved. Not love as society defines, which is but a synonym for sex, but to be truly loved with a pure love. Pure love is the husband who will care for a wife that is sick and unable to rise out of bed. Pure love is a wife that will support her husband even when he is unemployed. Pure love is to give and give and give, until there is nothing left of you that has not already been poured into the other person’s spirit. When one individual receives pure love from another, the most wondrous and fantastic feeling occurs: the person recognizes that he or she is the recipient of an item that cannot be counterfeited. It is impossible to forge pure love just as it is impossible to forge a mind. Pure love is always recognizable because of the feeling it evinces in others. There is no substitute for feeling within one’s self that another person would truly give of themselves, perhaps even unto death. That feeling cannot be manufactured—it is only found in a person that truly cares and desires to care. Pure love has no substitute.
It is a hard thing to define pure love. Suffice it to say that pure love cannot be defined because its definition is self-defining. That is to say, one knows pure love as soon as one experiences it. Pure love is not restricted to a particular activity or a particular mode of declaration or even a particular personality. Pure love is a decision to always care for, provide for, and never leave destitute another person. These persons are not always one’s significant other—indeed some of the greatest examples of pure love come from those acted unto strangers. Pure love is God’s love. It is the whole and complete giving of one’s self for or to another person.
Note that these remarks are not directed towards those individuals who have had the misfortune of finding themselves in an abusive or otherwise harmful relationship. Rather, I am speaking to those of us who may not have taken the time to realize what pure love is; those of that that might never have stopped to consider whether we are investing all that we are into building a relationship that glorifies God. Indeed, these remarks are directed at those that may have looked at their significant other and seen merely an object to be played with instead of a person to live life with. To the reader, it is your choice and your choice alone whether or not to take the time to create pure love in your relationship. But be encouraged: it is never too late to begin. Though perhaps not accepted at first, every person on Earth has within themselves the faculties to recognize pure love. Love that does not care for reward, but love that would give itself even if it were to be tossed away immediately. Once that love is recognized for what it is, it will be accepted. Thus, there is no reason for the reader to hesitate in beginning to give pure love if he or she has not already done so. For me, beyond bringing others to the knowledge of my Savior, I can think of no other way to spend my time than to figure out and deduce how to love others with a pure love.
This piece was selected to be published in the 2014 Anderson University Literary Arts Magazine.