Someone, someone,
Someone who really loves you
When someone really loves you
That’s when your life begins
This old Crickets song was one of the first that I learnt to play on my guitar…
I grew up with simple love songs, love stories… a boy meets a girl, (sometimes a girl meets a boy,) they fall in love, get married, have a family and live happily ever after.
Then, love was simple.
Over the years, either love’s got more complicated or I’ve become more aware of its complications… love, sex, marriage, living together, having children, don’t always fit together in a comfortable, tidy picture.
People ‘fall out of love’, relationships become complex. This week I’ve had conversations with two women about their families… parents who’ve been through a painful separation… the confusion, anger and divided loyalties of their children… It’s messy, sad, and far from the my simple, innocent, teenage idealism.
Today, love’s complicated.
Last night I watched the Greek tragedy ‘Antigone’ – written by Sophocles nearly two and a half thousand years ago – performed by a local theatre company…
…Two brothers lay dead, one buried, one abandoned to the elements. Two sisters are left – the last of the Oedipus bloodline… It’s a story about love, loyalty and power… By the end, one sister, Antigone, Prince Haemon and Queen Euridice have each taken their lives…
According to Sophocles and Greek tragedy… and perhaps some today… love’s impossible.
Ancient Greek theatre showed that life – and love in particular – is influenced by the gods, fate, and human choice. And today…?
Has our (usually loving?!) marriage lasted for 50 years because of God/gods, good fortune or because as teenagers we made a wise choice?
And friends whose experience of love and marriage has been unhappy, broken, complex or non-existent… do I explain that by God, fate or poor human choice?
Easy answers? I sometimes struggle… but hang in there.
Love’s not impossible; today’s complicated love becomes simpler as I trust my faithful, loving God.
malcolmsmusings.org 