| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 12 |
Page 7 |
You say, “Yes, but my friend stayed so brief a time! I could almost wish that I had not let my heart fasten its tendrils about him, since so soon he was torn away from me.” Say it not. It is worth while to love, and to let the heart pour out all its sweetness in loving, though it be but for a day, and then to have the bliss give way to grief. Richard Watson Gilder in a little poem touches this element of human grief.
“Because the rose must fade
Shall I not love the rose?
Because the summer shade
Passes when winter blows,
Shall I not rest me there
In the cool air?
“Because the sunset sky
Makes music in my soul,
Only to fail and die,
Shall I not take the whole
Of beauty that it gives
While yet it lives?”
It is sweet to have your friend, if only for one day. You will really have him always after that. For two persons to love each other at all, actually, deeply, worthily, is to have their lives knit together into one, indissoluble, two souls blended in one, inseparable. Death will not tear them apart. It is blessed to love though we stay together but the briefest while. A baby comes and looks into the young mother’s eyes, and in an hour is gone. Was that brief stay in vain? No; the mother always has a baby after that. The love for that sweet life will never die in her heart. She will always have on her soul the impression made by that short stay. Then in the eternal years she will have the beautiful life as her own, in love, fellowship, and joy.
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