It funny. Sweet actually. Recently, upon posting the lyrics to COUNTLESS DREAMS, I was flooded with emails encouraging me on my road to love. So many friends, fans, well-wishers heard my cry of loneliness and felt compelled to offer their condolences, words of advice and comfort or testimonies of how god brought love into their lives.
I felt almost foolish writing everyone back and reminding them that the song had been written in 2005 and since then, while I am single now, I have had the good fortune to find “love” , uh, twice.
Yep, like many an artist and poor fool, I have known romantic love on and off throughout my tumultuous life. Some great, some not-so-great but nothing enduring it seems… As I reflect on my life I wonder so often how my world would look today if any of these relationships had “worked out” of if I had passed on them in the first place.
The one relationship that stands out is the one I have with Jesus. And while I have admittedly referred to Him as my boyfriend, today’s writing will not turn in the “Jesus fills my every void” sermon.
Actually, it was announced today that actress Elizabeth Taylor has died. Dame Liz has been and may forever be the poster gal for relationship addicts, bless her soul. All those lovers, all those marriages. I’ve watched this woman fall in and out of love my whole life and yet what she will be remembered most for, far above her stellar acting and undeniable beauty, is the love she bestowed on others.
Elizabeth Taylor devoted the last third of her life to her humanitarian efforts, her battle against AIDS. Remember that she was one of the first celebrities to take on this effort and certainly the most tireless and aggressive. She put her face, her career and her reputation on a disease that our then-president wouldn’t mention by name. Hero, warrior, servant… beats the beans out of “Icon.”
Maybe therein lies the lesson: we search our wholes lives for The One when in actuality its’ not the love we receive but the love we give that defines us in the end. I’m not sure that Liz had a happy life, certainly not an easy one but unlike so many stars that pass away to be eulogized in words like “They gave us so much…”, Elizabeth Taylor actually did and she did so, not by word alone, but by example.
In this life, all of us will at some point “throw in the towel” on many relationships. We may put the most emphasis on romantic love but for many this is the most disposable love of all (check out the divorce rates). Family, God, service… Maybe the safest investments of all.
Hug someone with HIV.