truth and dare

speaking of wonderful words, i was recently made aware that once john steinbeck wrote a letter to his son about love. young thom told his pa that he thought he was in love, and here is how his father responded…

dear thom:
we had your letter this morning. i will answer it from my point of view.
first - if you are in love - that's a good thing - that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. don't let anyone make it small or light to you.
second - there are several kinds of love. one is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. this is the ugly and crippling kind. the other is an outpouring of everything good in you - of kindness, and consideration and respect - not only the social respect of manners but the greatest respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. the first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had.
you say this is not puppy love. if you feel so deeply - of course it isn't puppy love.
but I don't think you were asking me what you feel. you know that better than anyone. what you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it - and that i can tell you.
glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.
the object of love is the best and most beautiful. try to live up to it.
if you love someone - there is no possible harm in saying so - only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.
girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.
it sometimes happens that what you feel inside is not returned for one reason or another - but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.
lastly, i know your feeling because i have it and i am glad you have it.
and don't worry about losing. if it is right, it happens - the main thing is not to hurry. nothing good gets away.
love,
fa

i absolutely love this, and i believe what mr. steinbeck wrote is true. true love is true. i just know it.

in addition to sharing this bit of truth tonight, i also want to issue a dare (you know, just to round things out, 8th grade style) to my blog readers. blog stats and analytics are quite fascinating. there are quite a few of you who drop by and see what i have to say or share. i have a sneaky feeling that you are a pretty neat group of people. but analytics only give me numbers, and quite honestly, i want to know a little about who is behind those numbers! people are so, so great.

so … i triple dog dare you to leave a comment on this post and tell me why you’re reading my little blog, or what your thoughts are on true love, or what steinbeck book i should read next, or what your favourite color is, or what makes you feel “dripping with passion.”

do you remember what happens to those kids who don’t follow through on their dare when playing “truth or dare”???

me, either. hmmmm. but just leave me a comment. i want to know a bit of who you are. because i think i like you.