The Corinthians got it wrong

Love is patient

Love is kind

Love is not envious

Or rude

Except it is sometimes

It is all those things

And yet we still call it love

Pick up the phone when it rings

Slam it down

Get angry

Hurt

Confused

And I really wish Corinthians had written about that

Told the truth

I wish they had added that love is waiting

And praying

And just holding on

That it hurts deeply

And leaves scars

I wish they said love screams

Throws tantrums

And teapots

And slides down walls and sobs with a broken heart

I really wish they said that bit about love breaking your heart

Many times over

I wish they said love punches walls

And calls loved ones

All sorts of names

I just wish they told the truth

Those Corinthians

Because I still would have loved

But I would have been better prepared

Aspiring to some sort of perfect relationship doesn’t work. If you’ve read my recent poetry book “Healing the Broken Pieces” you would have stumbled across “The F&@k of Point” yes that was aimed at my husband at one time – but could have equally applied to others who I have also loved at other times.

Family – nobody winds you like those that are the closest.

Because we love them.

Love isn’t this nice soft thing that never changes. And it isn’t a noun it’s a verb

An action word

And boy does it see some action at times

Some think the flip side of love is hate – I don’t think so – because I’ve hated and loved someone at the exact same time.

And I wasn’t flipping a coin but if I had a stick …just kidding

No

The flip side of love is not caring at all – it is give a damn busted – and when you find yourself there – well that’s a problem.

If you have read my poetry book and this blog you will also see plenty of references to my deep love and humour filled affectionate relationship with my husband.

That’s marriage. After the gloss wears off and the freezer has blown up so you have to toss out those bits of wedding cake you saved.

After the kids have arrived and take you to heaven then put you through hell at times and you think it will be over when they move out but it’s not because you love them see

So it will never be over

If you’re lucky

But

After all of those years and all those tears and lots of laughter if you’re lucky and you’re still together with your husband

Then you’ve got something real and strong and true and that’s much better than whatever those Corinthians said way back when

Or

maybe just maybe when they copied and pasted their papyrus back then they left the best bit off.

They left the bit that comes first – dropped the first chapter

That would have gone a bit like what I said back there

How you go through all that crap and then

Only then

Do you get to:

Love is patient

Love is kind

Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude

It does not insist on its own way

It is not irritable nor resentful

It does not rejoice in wrongdoing

But rejoices in the truth

It bears all things

Believes all things

Hopes all things

Ensures all things

Love never ends

And if you stay together through all of life’s ups and downs and happy times and bad times then yes

You get what those Corinthians promised

You get true love

Have a good day you folks on the other side of the world – talk to you tomorrow

Oh nearly forgot

Header photo: the mad little town of Lightening Ridge in Queensland – I rode there one week-end on the bike and it was supposed to be there and back but there was a lot to see (so I ended up staying a few days) and this church was amazing – I did a bit of photo blending as well for the purposes of this post

Because I’m thoughtful like that

Xx

38 thoughts on “The Corinthians got it wrong

  1. Your poem and writing in between asks questions and answers what you found.
    In main you seem to write about love between a couple.
    Love is a verb you say, and I agree. Love does also encompass so many other situations.

    Your book sounds intriguing.

    Miriam

    • Hi Miriam I am writing about love between a couple because so many people including myself have this passage in their wedding ceremony. But yes loving anybody and family relationships etc all include love – and loving opens ourselves up to hurt so it sometimes takes a longer view to see the truth of the Corinthians passage about love.

    • Ha! I’m so glad you are enjoying the book – I wrote that poem when I was so damn angry and by the end of it I was over it. The power of writing – it just drains all the emotion out of something but at the same time you feel you have expressed yourself so you don’t get that horrid choked up feeling. If you’re ever mad start reading it aloud – something about the old F bomb nothing comes close 😂

  2. It is regarded as praiseworthy that love abides, but as unworthy that it does not last, that it ceases, that it changes. Only the first is love; the other seems, because of the change, not to be love – and consequently not to have been love. The facts are these, one cannot cease to be loving; if one is in truth loving, one remains so; if one ceases to be loving, then one was not loving. Ceasing to love has therefore, in relation to love, a retroactive power. Kierkegaard-Works of Love

    • I love that Len. It is so true – the power of love is pure and incorruptible- sometimes we just have to dig to find it. Sometimes all the other stuff has to happen first to show us what love truly is. Love is as the Corinthians say – they just left off the first page that tells you how to get there.

  3. Very rare for people to stay together once they married until the end. My parents seem to have manage to be together for almost 50 years which is still.a mystery for me. I only know is that my father early in the morning while he moves from here to there passing through the kitchen where she is with her breakfast he makes her laugh, still after all those years, and still surprises her. Maybe laughter is one of the keys to love.
    Great poem by the way, I liked the ambivalence at the beginning.

  4. Oh yes. Love goes through so many phases. It takes time to really get to a point of comfort. I think part of the issue, with a long-term romantic relationship is that the love would have to be patient enough to last through the tough times.

    • We were listening to a radio program once while driving in the car and the lady being interviewed was talking about this – it was years ago but I still remember her words – as long as one person loves the other person at the worst times then that one person will pull the marriage through – my husband and I both agreed – this is very true and sometimes that’s been him and sometimes me but we hit level 25 (anniversary) this year and both of us are pulling in the same direction again now for sure.

  5. I understand what you are trying to say. We do all these things because we care. I agree that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.

    However, I don’t fully agree on the “lost chapter” of Corinthians. All the ugly things you describe might be influenced by our feelings towards the other person, but they do not embody it. If you think about a tantrum, you will realize that it’s because of our selfishness. It’s not because we LOVE someone. It’s because we want something that we cannot have.

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