IT
written by: James Howard
It’s been sung about and written about. Movies have been made, lives have been changed and legends born to it.
It’s been arranged, forced and forbidden.
Pined for and loathed. It’s been true, lasting and fleeting.
Some find it easy and early. Some spend many years searching for it until it finally finds them. Others, those poor, lonely souls, never get to experience it.
It’s elusive yet everywhere.
It’s enlightening yet befuddling.
It’s made the average Joe larger than life and brought big tough bearded Diesel Dan to his knees.
It’s been demonized, weaponized and scrutinized. It’s given life and taken life. It’s turned the best of friends into the worst of enemies. Wars have been waged, feuds escalated and cities burned over it. Thrones have been abdicated and a thousand ships have been launched for it. The Tug ran red when beautiful Roseanna turned to the Devil’s son because of it.
It serenades and taunts.
It’s turned hypocrites true and the true crooked.
It’s broken the rich and enriched the poor. It’s free yet costs a fortune.
It’s been philosophized, intellectualized, idealized, symbolized, sexualized, conventionalized and commercialized.
It’s been pure, scammed, true and forced.
It – is love. Powerful, uplifting, and painful. If you have it, hold on to it with all your might. Nurture and celebrate it. Preach to its virtue and comfort. But, always be on guard, for its warm, comforting embrace balances precariously on a razor’s edge with the dark, icy grasp of hatred lying in wait just over the other side.
- 2020 A Paradox of Americana - July 4, 2023
- IT - February 14, 2023
- I Wonder - January 12, 2023
