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Read this if you're new (or bored...).
2003-04-22 - 9:20 a.m.
All you need is... (religious)
Is it even worth puting up a disclaimer saying that this entry will be religious? If you've been reading for any length of time, you must be ok with that by now. All the same, if you're new I guess it's only fair to warn you, in case this stuff makes you squeamish. You know the drill -- if you don't like, don't read. Anyway, over the past week, I've heard a lot of discussion about love -- what it is, when you can feel it, what it means, how many people you can love at once, fun stuff like that. Now, I've read a few good descriptions (and if I remember I'll link on in here later) but the best one is, you guessed it, Biblical. There's a lot that St. Paul says that I'm not fond of (women shouldn't speak in public, much less preach the Word; people should get married only because they're too lustful to control their impulses otherwise; fun stuff like that...), but there's something that I feel he got dead right... "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. "It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, "but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (I Corinthians 13:1-13) I hope this answers your questions. Wow. I gave an answer this time. Cool.
EDIT: I told you I'd add other takes on love as I found them, and this (an entry by Aware) is the one I had in mind.
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