THE SWEET TASTE OF IMMORTALITY
On this day, I’m thinking of my friend, the husband of a married couple who lies in a hospice, clinging to his life in the hope he will live long enough to celebrate 63 years of marriage with his wife. What a bittersweet celebration that will be if he makes it… if he isn’t in too much pain. I’m guessing their love will make it happen. Given their unswerving devotion to one another, it deserves to happen though in February, April’s daffodils seem a world away.
Much has been written in Cupid’s honor. His work has filled untold pages of great novels and left no corner of the globe unvisited. Albert Einstein wrote that “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” That may be true, but it is also true, that like gravity, love is ubiquitous.
And so on this Valentine’s Day, I send my greetings to lovers and would-be lovers — those who share what can never die and so know something of immortality. I wish for you no less than 63 years of happiness. That should be everyone’s measure of joy in this world.
“I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
(“Sonnets from the Portuguese” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning)