True Love

It was the summer of 1969. We had just finished our ISC exams and were running free like butterflies in the wind!

I remember sitting in a South Bombay theatre with a gang of school friends and watching the timeless, sensitive, touching and full of life movie by Franco Zeffirelli…Romeo and Juliet. I loved the movie and some scenes are still etched in my memory. The prose, the diction, the duels and the balls and decked halls, really reflect the life of those times. A great piece of art for sure.

I also remember it being hot and humid inside the theatre with the constant hum of overhead fans and exhausts. (All Bombay theatres were not air-conditioned then).

But I enjoyed the movie to the hilt.

Now, nearly 45 years later I can say with some experience…how little we knew about true love, true sacrifice and true passion then.

Romeo and Juliet depicts the power of passion’s intensity. The story portrays how parents or elders prevent relationships. It exposes division and conflicts in families or ethnic groups that go on for generations. It reveals how girls find independence for themselves and it shows how young people have to bear the brunt of ancient vendettas that don’t have answers.

We have not changed in a generation. We are still the same. It is amazing to know that all over the world more than 130 wars rage. The US alone is fighting or ‘helping’ 74 nations in war!

Can we love?

Yes we can! We were created for love, by love, and with great love. A loving Creator who made us in His image and likeness created us. This same Creator has revealed Himself as Jesus who came down among us and broke the barriers of human hate and grisly greed…to show us that true love means true sacrifice.

So then giving up is stronger than taking back. Letting go is nobler than grabbing and possessing by force. Stepping down is higher that stepping on. And being humble is more powerful than standing against.

In the realm of human faculties, to rise up in life means to fight and bite. In the realm of Biblical truth to rise up in life means to become a servant.

We really cannot say if the story of Romeo and Juliet has any historical truth. But woven in this timeless piece of great literature are life’s lessons one cannot forget.

You and I can still change things around. We may just about live into the next generation and can influence them from what we have learned for sure.

So hey! Go change the world. Make a difference. Live it!