Love and Intimacy
Love and intimacy baffle. What can be done at best is to relate man’s observation about them and to reflect on them. They are two inseparable concepts; at least that’s how many see it. Love is not consummated without the expression of intimacy. Intimacy, on the other hand, thrives in a place where there is love.
People living normal lives are wont to admit that life is not complete without love. Love, in its many forms, can transcend across barriers. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tells of a love that smashes to the ground clannish enmity. The God of Israel expressed an unconditional love that binds together man and deity.
The love of a friend named Jonathan has shielded David from the wrath of Jonathan’s father Saul. The power of pure love that is expressed in these instances is a testament of love’s immense supremacy.
It is because of this great power that love, intimacy and their derivatives are worshipped as they are. Yet, there is no greater love than the love between a mother and a child. The unbound love of a mother to her child is immeasurable; it doesn’t recognize any boundary.
To a mother, there is no other thing more important than the child that was born from her bosom. That child is her greatest source of inspiration, her all. No words come close enough to describe the kind of love and intimacy between a mother and a child.
But people are usually more interested with the love that is shared by a man and a woman, by lovers. When two people find themselves falling in love with each other, the distance between them becomes a matter of inconvenience. In that, love is portrayed as two halves of a unit. One is not complete without the presence of the other and in the absence of one, there will be no rest until the other is found.
True lovers find ways to fight odds that threaten the liberty to show their love. But if the odds succeed in its vision to separate them, life becomes worthless. Death becomes the sweetest escape. True love has been known to traverse life’s extremes: for richer or for poorer, in hunger or in fullness, in life or in the afterlife.
Great minds have either despised or embraced it. Those who feel consternation for love are quick in saying that lovers are fools to long for that kind of intimacy. On the other hand, those who have experienced love relish with a big delight intimate moments that had been shared.
Once again, it can be said that indeed love is a mystery and will continue to be so until no one knows when. It is a mystery one can only unravel through direct experience. Even yet, a direct experience of love does not guarantee a complete understanding of love’s ways.
A lover is only allowed to feel it, savor it. Beyond the senses, there can be no perfect elucidation. Love and intimacy elude clarity; they are unspeakable at best.
