Today is our niece Gabriella’s 8th birthday! 8 years ago, her Mommy went to the OB/GYN and said ‘I think this bun is baked!’ They sent her to the hospital and after 3 grueling pushes Gabby joined the world and our family. The celebration began with the traditional pizza and chocolate chip cookies. Sure, other people drink champagne but Gabby’s family is ‘special’. Sure, we drank later but that was just celebrating that it was a Monday!
Lee says: People have parties every year to commemorate a birth, anniversary or an accomplishment regardless of the economy. There is a festive attitude around anything regarding people for which you feel affection. The moment you are smitten you want to don a party hat. This holds true whether it is your lover, your child, your family or friends. Which leads us to the funnest definition of love:
Love is a celebration!
When I say celebration I am not talking about the drunken ravings and slurred ‘Ilubyouuus’ said while someone holds your hair in the bathroom. I am talking about the ‘YIPEE” feeling of being in love.
Please remember that when we talk about love we are not limiting the discussion to romantic love. Love is a universal feeling that dysfunction has usurped and warped. This is why parents can say they love you right after a two hour guilt trip where they didn’t even bother to give you a soda and peanuts. This is why we hover over our children and baby them until they almost collapse like veal from the unused energy, courage, independence and ninja skills (thank you Jeannie). This is why we surround ourselves with ‘friends’ who buy our bullshit full price and we return the favor by turning a blind eye to their addictions and abuses. These are not examples of love but of dysfunction and fear.
True love is a celebration. True love is fun because it is all the things we have mentioned previously like commitment, comfort, courage, responsibility and trust. All of these attributes create an environment of safety that allows and encourages one to celebrate. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 talks about love as patient and kind. It also mentions several things love is not. In reality, this is a great definition of love and still misses the ever important celebration.
If you read CoupleDumb often then you know we do not push any faith and accept all belief systems. If anything we push the hippy free love and appreciation of all viewpoints. However, many people mistake celebration with being boastful and prideful. We say ‘hogwash!’ Having a healthy love is a cause for pride. Being prideful is really positioning and taking a stance that you are right about something. It is not the healthy feeling of self-esteem. The feeling that ‘hey, I did good!’ So toot your horn and light up the fireworks!
I know quibbling with the Bible will get me in trouble. But to you B Thumpers I say, the book was inspired by God but written by man. Sometimes the guys took bad dictation and slipped in their own beliefs and edited some important bits. I know I’m just digging the hole deeper when I say that God is the best example of love and we have distorted it to the point where it begins to resemble our twisted shadow of love. God does not hate or judge us or any of that. He celebrates us every day with a beautiful sunrise and spectacular sunset. He has fun with us and enjoys our silliness and neuroses. And if I’m wrong I’ll be struck by lightning. And no, being struck by a zealot does not count.
Paul says: OOOOOHHHHH, Lee’s gonna piss off God. Luckily, I have a lightening rod and a rechargeable battery. Our whole house runs on blasphemy power. Go green!
