Lies about love - Part II

in·sip·id
   inˈsipid/
adjective

• lacking vigor or interest; meaningless
• "many artists continued to churn out insipid, shallow works", "insipid pictures"

synonyms: unimaginative, uninspired, uninspiring, characterless, flat, uninteresting,lackluster, dull, drab, boring, dry, humdrum, ho-hum, monochrome,tedious, uneventful, run-of-the-mill, commonplace, pedestrian, trite,tired, hackneyed, stale, lame, wishy-washy, colorless, anemic, lifeless

in·sip·id love a relational context  a shallow relationship and of little value; lacking significant investment; meaningless "insipid love, just a warm feeling without meaningful commitment, durability, cost, involvement, load sharing" English is a poor language for discussions about love. In today's common usage, the word conveys a sense of affection, good feelings associated with being together, and perhaps a measure of admiration. It has to be embellished in order to be other than small and soft-edged; e.g., great love, earth-shaking love, crazy love, etc. There is, however, a mountaintop where we find the real thing, and everything less pales in insignificance.  In classic literature, love (agape [Greek], caritas [Latin], charity) is perhaps the most powerful of all personal choices and actions.  It means making a place in one's life for another, forgoing self-interest in favor of another, it means doing what is right because it affects another, and it means personal sacrifice up to and including one's own life in doing well for another.  The one who loves will adjust their goals and refocus their life for the sake of another.  Real love costs all one has, and it's worth it. To suggest that a person is loving or that a community or even a nation is loving (yet they remain far below the mountaintop) is inaccurate.  Short of the real thing, it's insipid, is it not. An imperfect heart exists in us all, and the price is high if we hope to perhaps reach a life of genuine love.  It is, as it turns out, a lifetime of learning and changing.  To love truly is to live with the deep pain of caring and the immeasurably greater joy of lifting another up.   One can truly love another. One can truly love a people. One can truly love their country. One can truly love the world.   In fact, that's the good news for us all, and it's not a gentle breeze.  More a cat 5 hurricane, perhaps.

If you've read this far, you might appreciate Part I.