50+ Lifestyles

PUBLISHER’S CORNER

What Is Love?

By Eloise Graham

The dictionary tells us love can be a noun as in “My grandchildren are the loves of my life” or a verb as in “I love my grandchildren.” We can love a sunset or a new pair of shoes. We love pizza and potato chips. We love sports games and playoffs. We love puppies and kittens. We can love just about everything. We love people and objects with the same feeling. Facebook has made it easy to do that. They have supplied us with a big red heart that we can use to say that we really agree with what someone posted, we enjoy what they said or we care about that person and the post. We seem to use the word love to describe or explain just about everything. Has the word almost lost its meaning?

In 1993 Tina Turner asked us in a song ‘What’s love got to do with it?” She called it only a second hand emotion. She was going through a breakup from her abusive husband Ike Turner.  Through her song, she shared that love was probably not a good thing – just emotion.

I think O. Henry said it best in his short story called “The Gift of the Magi” published in 1905. It tells of a young husband and wife and their sacrifice to show devotion for each other. It was Christmas Eve in 1905, a young wife named Della Dillingham Young discovers that she only has $1.87 (about $61 today) to buy a present for her husband James. Despite being poor, they each have a possession they value as a treasure. Della had long, brown hair that would depreciate the Queen of Sheba’s jewels. James had a gold pocket watch, a family heirloom that would make King Solomon envy him. Della dresses warmly and visits the nearby shop of a wig maker. She sells her hair for $20.00 (close to $700 today) to the wig maker. Della then uses the money to buy a platinum fob to go with James’ watch to replace the worn leather strap that he used. When he comes home that evening, Della admits to him that she sold her hair to buy him the chain. James gives Della her present, a set of beautiful ornamental combs for her hair. She gives James the platinum chain and he tells her that he had sold his watch to buy the combs. Their love and devotion was so deep that they gave up their prized material goods to get a gift for each other. Their love for each other is truly amazing. Those who sacrifice their material goods for those they love are truly as wise as the magi.