On being nonsensical, or, What am I thinking on my birthday

To let you in on my reflections upon turning - ehem - older, I shall have to turn you onto G.K. Chesterton because he was the first to make sense on this concept. He's neither the first to introduce it, nor is he the originator of it, but reading his book Orthodoxy made it all click. Actually, it was more like a crash! boom! for me.

In the beginning of the book he said that Love is nonsensical. "A thing must be loved BEFORE it is loveable."

Do you hear the crash! and the boom! ?

If anyone loves you, it is not your doing. If you love anyone, it is not because he/she merits your love. Love hinges on the Lover, not the Beloved.

Another wise interpretation of this is in a top-notch film called Bruce Almighty. You know it: Bruce, Jim Carrey's character, gets all the power in the world which means he gets to play God - when God, played by the remarkable Morgan Freeman, gives it to him. The only power Bruce does not have is to make anyone love him. Beautiful. Recently I heard a song, a Bonnie Raitt song, called "I can't make you love me (if you don't)." Again, beautiful (and painful), because it's true.

I think of Chesterton, and Bruce, and Bonnie Raitt's song, because I am looking at a gift of pictures and words from my friends, and at the flowers in my room, and the cards on the dining table. And I think of how much I don't deserve it all. But it's fine, because it doesn't matter whether I deserve it or not; it is irrelevant. Your love (and my love, too) is nonsensical.

And so, friends, hope you know it's a compliment when I say: you are all crazy. (And so am I).

ps: Go read Chesterton's Orthodoxy. He might be hard-going at first, but stick with it. There are gems upon gems.