I used to love it when the first SweetTart out of the roll was a cherry one.
I hated moving from country to country as an Air Force family, but I really loved meeting and exchanging with new peoples and cultures.
I love dogs, but hated it when I had to undergo a very painful series of injections to my spine after I was bitten by our family dog. I loved that little dog, but soon after, he was not around anymore. Just like our other dog who evidently “ran off to get married” after chewing up my mothers’ favorite three pairs of shoes.
I loved being able to stay up past my bedtime in Japan so that I could watch the only American TV show— The Defenders starring E.G. Marshall and Brady Dad-to-be Robert Reed as attorneys.
I hated that, once again in a foreign country (this time England), we had access to only one American TV show.
But I loved the fact it was Rowan Martin’s Laugh-in and I looked forward to seeing Goldie Hawn and her tats every week; kinda reminded me what it feels like to be American.
I loved a certain little finger sandwich I always ordered in the bus and rail stations in England. They were a simple bun with Devonshire butter and watercress. I could (and did) eat about eight of them at one time.
I loved the feeling of adventure I got as a five year-old getting on a Pan Am flight to Japan, but was hating it when we landed for a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska. It was only a week or so after a massive earthquake rocked the state. As we approached the landing, you could easily see that the runway was full of cracks and holes, not all of which had been filled with tar to hold them together.
I loved it when my Fighting Irish won the NCAA football national title in 1989 in Phoenix, Arizona. I remember turning to my Dad and cackling something brilliant like “we’ll be back winning many more championships.”
I hate that I’m still waiting…
I love the fact that I am one of the fortunate few that has managed to meet their soulmate on this planet, and not to start any ideological debate, but what I hate most is the prospect of being separated from her.
I write about love and hate in my book EMOTIONS: Not your Mama’s ABC’s! and here is the preface for the letter L:
L
“Love makes the world go ‘round, but money greases the wheels.”
A brother-ism this time that I am sure, like all good sayings, is stolen. With apologies to Darryl Strawberry, “it is money that is the straw that stirs the drink.” The facts are undeniable. If you have the wherewithal to read these words, take a second to remember all those fellow Earth-mates that do not enjoy what would amount to a real luxury in their lives. The ability to access and read. To learn. What a better world the entire Sphere of Life would be if the education level of every one of its inhabitants was raised? I suppose it is just too difficult a task to ask of our legislators to use a holistic lens to guide their course of actions rather than the fractured lens obscura through which the only things that are clearly visible to them are precincts, polls, and percentages.
Two words that should never be used in the same room are budget and education. Since I am presuming a certain level of education from our nation’s leaders and shapers of policies, they must see the terms as antithetical. To make it easier for them to understand, just replace the word “Budget” with “Limit” and then let them explain to their own children that the sky is not the limit; it is actually lower due to budget considerations. Right?
Perspective.
But back to love. I love love. I love the feeling people have, the glow they get, and the emotional responses it elicits. I never used to know the true meaning of the words “I love you.”
You remember that feeling you had when you met the very first boyfriend or girlfriend you ever had? Think back to when you wrote their name on everything. The need to see them early in the morning before school, then during breaks from class, skipped classes, and after school. Once home, you were on the phone to them making plans to meet later that night, or at the very latest tomorrow morning before school. Remember how you thought you physically ached because you weren’t together?
After thirty years plus years of marriage I still feel that way about my wife Karen.
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Stay well.
