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Weekend Butler: 3 love stories, 1 love poem, 1 love song, and one romantic movie (even if it’s about basketball and stars Adam Sandler)
By
Published: Jun 15, 2022
Category:
Weekend
If you’re not in a heat zone this weekend or in Ukraine or ill or otherwise disadvantaged, you are blessed. I know I am. I’ve got angels on my shoulder. Not celestial beings, but some people in my life — they know who they are because I’ve told them — offered wisdom at just the right time, and I took it, and made it my own, and now I don’t think it’s corny or just plain wrong when Thich Nhat Hahn prays as he walks: “Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.”
It’s been said that fathers genetically have trouble with emotion. As my daughter and my stepchildren know, not this guy. And it’s not just dads who may have emotional moments this weekend. Considering the cruelty and tragedy that dominates the news, it’s good to be among those who feel. These love stories are a small contribution…
THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTO (ABOVE)
In London, there’s a woman who goes every day to the underground and sits on the platform just to listen to an announcement recorded by her husband, Oswald Laurence, in 1950.
The recording became one of London’s most famous: “Mind the gap.”
In 2003, Oswald died.
After more than half a century, his voice was replaced by an electronic recording.
Margaret McCollum asked for a cassette tape from London transport company so she could continue listening to her husband’s voice at home.
The company did better: It restored the announcement at the stop near where Margaret lives, at the Embankment stop of the Northern Line.
Now Margaret sits on the bench to hear the recording.
Passengers at that stop can listen today and hear Oswald Laurence’s voice and think, if they see Margaret and know her story, that eternal love really exists.
—
BILLY COLLINS, “THIS MUCH I DO REMEMBER”
It was after dinner.
You were talking to me across the table
about something or other,
a greyhound you had seen that day
or a song you liked,
and I was looking past you
over your bare shoulder
at the three oranges lying
on the kitchen counter
next to the small electric bean grinder,
which was also orange,
and the orange and white cruets for vinegar and oil.
All of which converged
into a random still life,
so fastened together by the hasp of color,
and so fixed behind the animated
foreground of your
talking and smiling,
gesturing and pouring wine,
and the camber of your shoulders
that I could feel it being painted within me,
brushed on the wall of my skull,
while the tone of your voice
lifted and fell in its flight,
and the three oranges
remained fixed on the counter
the way stars are said
to be fixed in the universe.
Then all the moments of the past
began to line up behind that moment
and all the moments to come
assembled in front of it in a long row,
giving me reason to believe
that this was a moment I had rescued
from the millions that rush out of sight
into a darkness behind the eyes.
Even after I have forgotten what year it is,
my middle name,
and the meaning of money,
I will still carry in my pocket
the small coin of that moment,
minted in the kingdom
that we pace through every day.
TO LOVE WELL, START WITH YOURSELF
A story from Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love
One day King Prasenajit of Koshala asked Queen Mallika, “My dear wife, is there anyone who loves you as much as yourself?”
The Queen laughed and responded, “My dear husband, is there anyone who loves you more than you love yourself?”
The next day they told the Buddha of their conversation. He said, “You are correct. There is no one in the universe more dear to us than ourselves. The mind may travel in a thousand directions, but it will find no one else more beloved. The moment you see how important it is to love yourself, you will stop making others suffer.”
And commentary by Thich Nhat Hanh:
Understanding someone’s suffering is the best gift you can give another person. Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love.
Often, we get crushes on others not because we truly love and understand them, but to distract ourselves from our suffering. When we learn to love and understand ourselves and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person.
In true love, there’s no more separation or discrimination. His happiness is your happiness. Your suffering is his suffering. You can no longer say, “That’s your problem.”
To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love. To know how to love someone, we have to understand them. To understand, we need to listen.
MARIE AND PIERRE CURIE
from Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout
Marya Sklodowska, a brilliant student from Poland, came to Paris to study at the Sorbonne.
In 1894, she met Pierre Curie, an iconoclast who taught physics and chemistry.
How deep was their love?
As Pierre wrote to her, “It would be a fine thing … to pass our lives near to each other, hypnotized by our dreams; your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream.”
THE WEEKEND MOVIE: A LOVE STORY, EVEN THOUGH IT’S ABOUT BASKETBALL AND STARS ADAM SANDLER
“Hustle” has just launched on Netflix, and a zillion guys will watch it. A love story? In so many ways. A scout (Sandler) and the game. The scout and the player he discovers. The scout and his wife and daughter. The player and his daughter. After all the training, the tryouts and the disappointments, there’s a happy ending, so you know it’s a love story. Watch the trailer.
WHAT’S “THE SONG OF SUMMER?”
Some of you — men, without exception — have sent me their suggestions for “the song of summer.”
There are a million summer songs. For me, this song by Chris Rea is idiosyncratic and addictive — I hear blazing sun, burning beach, the tang of lotion mixed with ocean ozone. And time nowhere to be found, time banished. In Rea’s pre-global warming world, I feel young, fit, in love or about to be.
This song is “Looking for the Summer.” Click for the transporting video.
And the lyrics!
Look deep into the April face
A change is clearly taking place
Looking for the summer
The eyes take on a certain gaze
And leave behind the springtime days
Go looking for the summer
This ain’t no game of kiss and tell
The implications how you knew so well
Go looking for the summer
The time has come and they must go
To play the passion out that haunts you so
Looking for the summer
Remember love how it was the same
We scratched and hurt each other’s growing pains
We were looking for the summer
And still I stand this very day
With a burning wish to fly away
I’m still looking, looking for the summer
