I Agape You

I was pleasantly surprised to get a dentist's appointment today, on short notice.  As I was driving to the dentist, it hit me:  a single person would not make a dentist appointment on Valentine's day.  My cheerful dental assistant, as she was taking digital X-rays asked me what I was doing to celebrate the day.  "Just recovering from this visit"  I cheerfully responded.  As luck would have it, I had a psychosomatic cavity and so needed no drilling.  Which left me open to celebrate the day of love.

Here is my Valentine.  He could be looking a bit grumpy because he cleaned out the fish tank and inadvertently murdered the shrimp while trying to annihilate the 50 tiny black snails that were taking over the tank.  Scott was then forced to buy an assassin snail to finish the job.  So, knowing about and buying assassin snails to protect the family fish, that's love.  Then there is the nightly job of reading "Little House on the Prarie" Volume 7 to the bear or building rockets with the boy or driving to Braintree to pick up up a book for me entitled "A time to keep silence" about a Brit's sojourns to some of Europe's oldest monasteries.  Much, much better than flowers or chocolates.

Apparently the Greeks sectioned off love into three categories:  Eros, passionate love; Philia, brotherly or the love found in friendships; and Agape, the love of a committed decision.  My husband and I started with Philia, moved into Eros and now find ourselves committed to one another through the trusting eyes of both ourselves and our children.

Agape isn't the easiest love.  Jesus talked about it when he advised we should love our enemies.  Buddha talked about it in the dharma when he advised that we are all connected and that lovingkindness is the default position.

Start with your Valentine...and then move out and plow through the world with agape.  I will see you out there.