True love caught in courtship
12 February – The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: Courtship is sacred, because it is meant to be the thoughtful, prayerful preparation for the start of a new family. Yes, Father, including about family, but I wouldn’t mind telling anyone about the passion of true love caught in courtship. I fell in love once and heedlessly – and headlessly – and that was all I needed. That was even before the start of courtship. The first time I saw her, I said to myself, wordlessly to be sure, ‘That’s the girl.’ It wasn’t my head talking; it was my heart.
(The girl in the picture is my shot of my favorite painting of brilliant lawyer-author Tony Meer, which he showed among many others in his first one-man show at the Manila Polo Club last year; I was invited by him. See also my ‘Young At Heart. Tony Meer Paints His Loves,’ upbeloved.wordpress.com.)
She became my wife.
And I had fancied many a girl before her, and oh, to have many crushes in high school! Grace, Epay, Evelyn, Crispina – and not necessarily in that order. And many others. I was a loner, a boy from the village and not the city, and I was in love with all of them at a distance. I could do it – I had imagination. I was busy in my mind preparing to be the best writer I could be when I was older.
In fact I had had a bad, failed engagement with another girl years before – I had disengaged when I realized that I didn’t have enough love for that girl to last indefinitely. Love should be able to last indefinitely; if it has an end, you’re not 100% into it – or it’s just lovely companionship you’ve mistaken for love. Please don’t pretend true love when you know it’s not.
