04 December 2007

Life is pain. Love is pain.


These are the things I've learned in college.
These are the lessons imprinted on me.
This is the lens through which I now look.


Relationships of any kind (here I mean casual acquaintance, good friendship or romantic) involve trust, honesty and love. The depth of the relationship is determined by how much of each is employed. Trust involves opening up, being vulnerable. Honesty includes being honest with oneself. And love, love is something I know not how to define. It is what comes both before and after the other two. It is what binds two people together.


It hurts to lie to somebody. Most of all, perhaps, oneself. It is painful to hurt someone, and, of course, to be hurt. The test of love is not to love without hurting. We are human, and that is impossible. The test is instead to love, and be loved through the pain.


Love cannot possibly be achieved unless it has first been tested. Love is nothing without the hardship that must accompany it. To be free from the pain of life is to be without love. In my opinion, that is much more painful.