Going for black and white for a bit, here a shot from Bunker Hill Road. The winter woods.

March 3, 2010 – There are many differing views of love in our culture. That it’s only for the young. Or only something one sees in the movies. That it is imbued with romantic and idealized notions and feelings. That it doesn’t last long. That it is rare.  That it wearies under the pressures and ravages of time and life. That it isn’t important, when compared to much of what is in the news – money, war, catastrophe, politics.

Many people give up on the idea of love, especially when they’ve lost it, gotten older, been discouraged or distracted. I gave up on love. I thought it was for kids. I didn’t know what it was. I was not open to it.

So I am learning to love now, an extraordinary gift for a man in late middle age, and a seminal experience, one of the most significant and compelling of my life. I was thinking of one of my favorite books, “Learning to  Love: End Of The Journey”, Thomas Merton’s last book, and an account of his falling in love and having to choose between the woman he loved and his faith. So I want to write about love over the next week or so, an ambitious and personal subject, and an important one.

I have come to believe love is open to people if they are open to it, and it is not a simple process. Are we available to it? Seeking it? Do we have faith that it is there for us? A lot of people don’t.

Learning and changing. More to come. It is something that ought to be shared.