The fresh breeze wafting through the window was gentle and sweet, and the moon’s alabaster face gazed down on lovers everywhere. One of my favorite singers, “Babbling” Brook Benton, crooned across the radio waves, and I thought … I’m a romantic!
Why? Women. But since no such creature shares my humble abode, and since the babbler rolled back the years to my youth, I couldn’t resist an overpowering urge to get up and dance. Living alone isn’t fun, but has its advantages. If you want to act a fool, you can, so I waltzed with a broom.
Women. Ever since they evolved from a hank o’ hair and a piece o’ bone, the world has revolved around them. The Bible confirms this: … when men began to multiply on … earth, and daughters were born … the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives…. (Genesis, Chapter 6).
Normal, healthy, heterosexual males can’t resist their female counterparts. Even in my antiquity, I still prefer the company of women. I love to gaze at them, even though I no longer remember why. When I enter classrooms, I’m reminded that no place on earth boasts a larger population of gorgeous females than the South, and my women students represent a crop of beauties, all in peak bloom, that would inspire any man’s admiration.
That’s a good thing, because from caveman times until the present, if males had not accepted the fact that the daughters of men were fair, and wooed them, none of us would be here today.
Ah … this thing called love. Other words are bound by definitions; love isn’t. Its meaning comes with expressing it, and then it becomes life. As novelist Zelda Fitzgerald once said, “I don’t want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.”
And, regardless of time, place or circumstance, males and females have the capacity to connect with each other. For those wishing to express love, there is always a heart somewhere to receive it. And when those hearts connect, and man and woman seek to preserve this most precious gift, they will, as medical missionary Albert Schweitzer once said, “… be recompensed beyond measure.”
Love is not only life, but also faith, for as Mother Teresa said, “If faith is lacking, it is because there is too much selfishness, too much concern for personal gain. Love and faith go together: They complete each other.”
Who can doubt Ann Landers’ wisdom? Of love, she said, “If you have love in your life, it can make up for many missing things. If you don’t, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.”
Gentlemen, don’t let Valentine’s Day pass by without doing something special for your special lady. Give her flowers; take her out to eat. But, most importantly, say to her those three most beautiful words: “I love you.”
If you mean it with all your heart, you know: Love is life.
Jimmy Reed——
Bio and Archives
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
