"Father? Mother?" Jonas asked tentatively after the evening meal. "I have a question I want to ask you."
"What is it, Jonas?" his father asked.
He made himself say the words, though he felt flushed with embarrassment. He had rehearsed them in his mind all the way home form the Annex.
"Do you love me?"
There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then Father gave a little chuckle. "Jonas. You, of all people. Precision of language, please!"
"What do you mean?" Jonas asked. Amusement was not at all what he had anticipated.
"Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully.
Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory [of love].
"And of course our community can't function smoothly if people don't use precise language. You could ask, 'Do you enjoy me?' The answer is 'Yes,'" his mother said.
"Or," his father suggested, "'Do you take pride in my accomplishments?' And the answer is wholeheartedly 'Yes.'"
"Do you understand why it's inappropriate to use a word like 'love'?" Mother asked.
Jonas nodded. "Yes, thank you, I do," he replied slowly.
It was his first lie to his parents.
The Giver (?)
Lois Lowry (?)
of course.
Posted by: hill at June 2, 2004 08:51 AMnothing to do with!
www.benfriends.com
this fabulous! this is amazing! this unbelievable!
it's not www.bensfriends.com
it's www.benfriends.com
I recommend!
Posted by: Cory at June 8, 2004 12:57 PMhillary you need to get to work on this blog.
you also need to write more about me.
MY COMPUTER IS BROKEN......I CAN'T DO ANYTHING. I HAVE SO MUCH PLANNED BUT I CAN'T TO A DARN-TOOTIN' THING.
so if you don't mind being patient...
Posted by: hill at June 11, 2004 10:24 PMlisten.
that's about enough all caps there.
Sounds a bit familiar hill.
I agree with Jonah’s parents to an extent. Love has become an obscure term or maybe it's just used obscurely. I absolutely love the mint mocha fraps at Coffee Underground. I love the way that dress looks on you. I love the weather. I love dogs. I love my husband. I love God. Crazy! The same verb used to express extremely different emotions or actions. How about? I savor every slurp of the perfectly blended mint mocha fraps at Coffee Underground. That dress on you dazzles my eyes. The envelope of a wet warm mist massages my arms and face. I reverence my dog so much that I inquire at local designer clothing stores if they make clothing not only for children, but for dogs too. (Someone really asked me about that while I was working, I tried to choke out a kind reply of “no we don’t make clothing for dogs, and was tempted to add but if you want to donate a dollar you can help provide mothers and children in India with the opportunity to learn vocational skills so they don’t have to live in the streets with the dogs.” Another aside: I don’t know that I want to eat or drink at a coffee shop where the dog biscuit container is right next to the biscotti container and between the two of them there is only one serving utensil. Enough said.) I passionately desire to know the mind, body, and spirit of my husband. The beauty of my Creator, Sustainer, Savior, and Lover of my soul amazes me. The love of God creates in me an insatiable thirst for more of Him. The term love has been used so often as an overstatement, that it no longer makes much of a statement. The ironic thing is that Jonah is using the term love in the proper context. But his parents never learned the true definition.
What is love?
God is love.
What/Who is God?
By His grace I’m learning. It’s a life-long lesson. The lessons are new and fresh every morning. This is one class I never want to graduate out of.
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