Commentaries by Cynthia

A friend recently purchased a CD of the greatest pop hits of 1978. I spent most of my recent holiday listening to these old songs, feeling like I was back in the seventh grade again. Although I hadn’t heard or even thought of it in years, when the song Jack and Jill by the group Raydio came on, I gleaned a bit of insight as to why so many romantic relationships fail (or more precisely – why lovers stray.)

In case you haven’t heard the song and are interested, here are the lyrics:

Jack
Wanting someone to feel
Sat up on the hill
And waited all day for Jill

(Chorus)
Now, why do you think
Jack snuck down the hill
(He snuck down, he snuck down, broke his crown)
He needed love (Sweet love)
Love he couldn't get from Jill

Love. We all want it, but we don’t always know how to give or receive it. Too often, we put our relationships on automatic pilot – then we wonder why the plane takes a sudden nose dive.

As John Lennon said… “Love is a flower, you gotta let it grow.” And if you don’t nurture and tend to the flower, it will wilt and die.

How does this loss of love fit in with the ideal that love is somehow eternal? Well, real love is eternal. Real love is of a divine nature. Unfortunately, most of us learn what love is by first learning what it isn’t. If God gives us the gift of real love, we are expected to take care of it if we hope to retain it; otherwise, it goes back from where it came.

There seems to be a lot of dislike for those who stray or step out on their partner. I’ll admit that I have been both the cheater and the cheatee before, neither of which were pleasant situations for me or the other people involved, and I have no desire to repeat either scenario again. But I have been in Jack’s shoes before – with a neglectful partner, and it is also painful to find yourself on the begging end of a relationship.

So if you have love in your life, tend to it and respect your partner. Then maybe, just maybe, no one will feel the need to sneak down any hill.