The Role of Love

A person means something different to everyone in their lives. They are the same person internally, of course – they possess the same characteristics or personality traits, the same morals and beliefs – but they carry a different title and responsibility with each and every person they encounter. A man does not treat his wife the same way as his children, or talk to a co-worker the same way he would speak to a parent. A wife will see him as a lover; a child will think of him as a caregiver; a parent will see him as a precious gift of life.

These various hats that the man wears (metaphorically speaking, of course) do not make him any less loved or important to the person who views him in that way – he is merely taking on the various roles needed of him because, as we all discover, life demands it of him.

As he takes on these different roles, various kinds of love develop within him as well. The people in his life, those whom he touches, also develop a different sort of love for him. These kinds of love will extend beyond genetics and blood into a place where fate has casted him, where he meets his soul mate and makes some of the greatest friends life could ever give him.

The different kinds of love for this man play an important part in how they grieve for him, too, when the time comes for him to take his last breath and pass away from this world. His mother will feel the pangs of losing a son, a part of her own flesh and blood, and his wife will mourn the death of a lover, her second half and best friend. His children, on the other hand, will experience the sadness of losing a role model who cared and provided for them no matter the circumstance, and a sibling will have to say goodbye to a lifelong companion who, despite all the arguments and fights, meant more to them than they could ever admit.

All of these people cared for him differently as he lived, but the thing is that they cared. They loved him with every fiber of their being, and their love will extend beyond death. No matter how hard they try, the man will never escape their memory and thoughts – he drew himself in their minds with bold pen, never to be erased by other people or new experiences, and he will live on through their words and actions, refusing to be forgotten.

It doesn’t matter which hat he wore for them or which responsibilities he took on for them because, in the end, he loved them all too, and that’s really all that matters. They should celebrate the life he lived without letting those differences disrupt the feelings they had for him, uniting to share in the love they possessed and learning to love each other too.