ON LOVE

several years ago i was posed with a question that i still keep thinking about.

it was right after my dad died. i was still at that point in the grieving process where you take everything that happens and somehow relate it back to the person you lost. i still do that every once in a while, but for different reasons. anyway - i was in a philosophy class. the jist of the discussion went like this:

we assign value to things based on functionality. example: a knife is a "good" knife when it does its function (cutting things) well. a good pen writes well. and so on. a knife loses its value when it no longer cuts well. a "bad" pen does not write well. easy idea.

so what about people? what function are we supposed to have? what makes a person a "good" person? when do people lose their value?

i dont remember all the ways the discussion went, but i do remember spending a long time talking about it and a lot of people had different things to say. it was hard to nail down one specific thing that defines a person's importance, especially since you can then break down people in to groups. what makes a good man, woman, child, catholic, atheist, american, etc. plus, whereas a bad knife does not cut well for anyone, a bad person can be a good person for someone else.

ive made up my mind that a good person loves well. that's what we're here to do. simple answer on the surface, but its hard to love everything all the time. i've certainly failed a lot.

so, a goal: love. just keep loving and keep thinking about loving.

i miss you dad.