“…You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who’s never weak but always strong
To protect you and defend you
Whether you are right or wrong
Someone to open each and every door
But it ain’t me babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.” - Bob Dylan
I’ve never thought I could be someone’s everything and I never will. Human beings are imperfect and therefore, they will provide you with imperfect love. No matter how much someone loves you, and no matter what kind of love it is, it’ll ultimately fall short of the perfection that your soul seeks. It’s not a reason to shun love or be disappointed by the love you get. On the contrary, it’s all the more reason you should be more compassionate of the flawed love you receive.
There is a great strength that comes with loving someone especially when you know it’s the kind of love you’ll give your last breath for. But even in sacrificing loves such as these, we have moments of weakness, moments of unkindness and impatience where the imperfect love that we so often try to cover up is put on display. And in these moments we find that our expectation of love becomes one that can no longer solely include joy and happiness. We find that in love, we must also leave room for hurt.
From what I’ve known about love, it’s that it is beautiful but also painful. It’s as good and necessary as it is filled with frustration and let downs. Love invigorates and calms but it also empties and exhausts. It makes one want to care about everything and nothing. Love is powerful and love is powerless. Love makes everything make sense while not actually making sense of itself at all. Love just is.
And we all want it because without love in any shape or form, we start to decay and die way before we take our last breath. And so we love and we promise to give love in all the many ways we do. We promise to always be strong and true and steadfast. And maybe we make too big a promise, oblivious to the reality that our humanity will fail us and leave us short of what we wanted to give and the way that we wanted to love.
I can’t speak for all so I’ll just speak for myself: If I truly love you, I‘ll love you with all I have but it’ll never be perfect. I will hurt you in my moments of weakness and you will have moments of disappointment. I can only promise that no matter how flawed my love is, it’ll always be the best love I can give. But if you’re looking for someone who’s never weak, who’ll never call you wrong when you are, who’ll never fight with you, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for someone who promises to be your everything and promises you perfect love, it ain’t me babe; it ain’t me you’re looking for.
Bob Dylan and Kovie Biakolo couldn't have said it better.
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