sweet 'n' tender

my friend ken used to say, “love makes you stupid.” he always said it with a grin as if to distance it from its morbid “blood simple” allusion, however unconvincingly.

not that i necessarily disagree, since i certainly had my share of “love simple” moments. at times, i’m embarrassed to say, my stupidity doesn’t even rise to the level of that precious sentiment. let’s just say it can get a lot more messy and humiliating.

but love also comes in different flavors. some are short and sweet while others are bitter and torturously long. it is certainly addictive. “love is the drug,” once quipped bryan ferry, but i’ve always liked the way sweet puts it better in “love is like oxygen” (from level headed, capitol, 1977).

more important, there is love that is transcendent, like that between parent and child. i’ve been lucky in that department, first with my parents, then when my little monkey was born last week.

at first, i wanted to celebrate like major lance (i always loved johnny pate’s percussive arrangement of the curtis mayfield-penned “monkey time” on okeh records from 1963), but one look at ione’s sweet, tender features and the song i used to play for her mother when we first fell in love, bobby womack’s “i’m so proud” from someday we’ll all be free (beverly glen music, 1985) seems like the only appropriate way to tell her how i feel.

Posted by cellpharmer at January 22, 2005 10:47 AM