Love is a doing word

Someone mentioned love the other day, and I found his thoughts really interesting.   This guy had once been one of the most feared body guards, period.  He talked about people as “assets.”  He would take a bullet for an asset, if it was worth more alive then him.  This guy was one tough dude.
He mentioned two types of love we see.  It got me thinking about misguided love and love.  Of course, it is really easy for me to talk about such things, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Merril and I watched the movie “The Count of Monte Christo” the other day.  The production values were good, and it was absorbing, but we both agreed there was something wrong.  The movie showed how the Count of Monte Christo, became the Count of Monte Christo.  He was not always that way.  He came into a lot of money.  Before that, he lost his girlfriend to his best friend, and was thrown in prison for a long time.  The person who had been his best friend, told his girlfriend he had died, and she married him.
In the end he got the girl, and the baddy was dealt with, and they all lived happily ever after.  What I had trouble stomaching was how he got the girl back.  It was all about his revenge. I read something said by Mother Teresa just before.  She said “If you spend your time judging someone, you have no time to love them.”
It was just a made-up story, and I so wanted the guy to get the girl, the baddy to be dealt with, and for the goodies to live happily ever after.  They did.  It was just the message of the movie that troubled me.  It was like it was saying “to get what you want, step on anyone who gets in your way.”  I guess I am just not like that.  I don’t feel like revenge is my job.  Loving is.  It is funny, you can get what you want by just loving, (I have seen it) but the way it is achieved  can be different to what I imagined.
To me, the message of the movie was like misguided love.  It is love, but it can be dangerous.  The guy then likened real love to needing to exercise.  He said, and I agree, that growth really happens not on the couch, but doing.  I can talk about love until I am blue in the face.  What I say can make me seem like a real loving guy.  However love is a doing word.  It is only when I do stuff, that my words have real meaning. 
It may mean doing something I really do not want to do.  It may mean keeping my mouth shut.  It may mean assisting in some way when it seems to be nothing but an inconvenience.  It may mean helping someone else achieve their goal when mine matters more to me.  In short, love is manifest when it is hard, not easy.  When it is easy, it is easy.
If it is mine, collecting one million dollars would be easy.  Doing something that only promised, dirt, hard work and tiredness is a different story.  To me, love is like that.  Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is hard work.  Whatever it is, it is always worth it.e to edit.