Osler's Razor

Christmas is a holiday that embraces so many types of love-- we gather with "loved ones," which includes romantic, family, and agape relationships, at the same time that we celebrate God's gift of love to the world.

It is funny how such different kinds of love can seem so similar. The person who has come to faith so often resembles the person who has fallen in love-- unhitched from previous ways, filled with passion, seeing things anew. And the love for a child is not so different most of the time that the love we feel for a partner-- the protectiveness, the attention to the bond, a certain fear of loss.

Beneath it all, though, there is a commonality to everything that calls itself love. That is, every type of love has selflessness at its core, the willingness to subsume a part of ourselves into that love, to meld ourselves with something else. Yes, all love is at the cost of independent identity, and it is those who are most independent (of lover, God, children, friends) who disdain love most often.

I am not independent, for I have chosen to love and be loved, by God and some of those around me. Each of those I love takes away a little from my independence, because we become responsible to one another, and with each one I grow. I'll take that.