Real Love

I was at Mass this morning when an elderly couple sat behind me.  I noticed how caring the husband was for his wife.  He asked her for his glasses from her pocketbook.  She evidently looked into the wrong place because he gently told her, “No babe, that’s not where you put it”.  I don’t know what she was going through.  It could be some type of absent-mindedness, dementia, Alzheimer’s or whatever.  It doesn’t matter.  It was the loving way that he talked to her and treated her that made me think about real love.  Like the Bible said, “Love is patient, love is kind, etc”.  It talks of love persevering and everlasting.  I saw a wonderful display of this kind of love.  I don’t know what they were like when they were younger but it’s what I see now.  And from what I’ve seen and heard they have the real thing.  The problem with this generation is that we don’t have the patience, understanding, and perseverance in our relationships.  It’s easier to give up than work things out.  Relationships are like trees, they require a lot of care after the seedlings are planted, but the ground has to be fertile and fit enough for them to gestate.  Then, a lot of tender loving care is necessary.  Once the trees take root, they get stronger, the roots get deeper and the limbs stretch out.  But storms and bad weather come and test their perseverance and fortitude. It is disappointing that only a few relationships are able to survive the onslaught of gossip, hearsay, distrust, betrayal, and accusations.  Even through all of this, many couples remain together because the public perception would be that another relationship failed.  They are miserable but stay together because some people are more concerned about what others say than their mates.