Love and donuts

Once upon a time in a faraway land lived a fair maiden who, in spite of the fact that her mother arose early to prepare her a healthy breakfast, decided she needed donuts on the way to school. As their chariot passed by the donut shop, the maiden cried, “Oh, mother! Wouldst thou please, pretty please with sugar on top stop there and buy me a pink frosted donut with sprinkles?”

 

“I cannot,” said the maiden’s mother, “for our time runneth short.”

 

“But I thought thou lovest me,” cried the maiden.

 

“I do lovest thee,” cried the mother, much pained to have to deny her dear child this request.

 

The fair maiden swooned and sighed. “But what good is love without donuts?”

 

Now, when I heard this story, for it is most certainly a fictional fairy tale and not based in truth at all (ahem,) I was taken aback at the profundity of that statement. Indeed, what good is love without donuts? What good is anything without donuts, for that matter?

 

It seems we’re always hearing about the importance of tough love. Love must be strong, like steel. It must bend, but never break. It must have the endurance to go the distance, like an eggs-and-bacon kind of breakfast. But I wonder if we focus so much on love’s strength, we sometimes forget about love’s sweetness?

 

Yes, love pays the bills and does the laundry and helps with homework. Love checks in, watches out for, and provides discipline.

 

But love is also supposed to leave those around us with a pink-frosting kind of feeling from time to time. If my words and actions are always of the character-building variety and never the squishy donut variety, life loses some of its sparkle. Or sprinkles, as the case may be.

 

Love is supposed to be patient and kind. It’s supposed to leave one feeling built up, not beaten down. Sometimes, I’m afraid I might concentrate a little too much on the power side of love, and I forget about the soft side.

 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favor of tough love. But from now on, I’m going to make sure I sprinkle the toughness with some sweet, fluffy words and actions. One day soon, I think we’ll leave a little early for school and make time for donuts.

 

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal,” 1 Corinthians 13:1.

 

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