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Lyrics by John Denver

Perhaps Love

I remember the first time I heard the song "Perhaps Love" by John Denver. I recall that my aunt, for some weird reason, had a Placido Domingo CD, where one of the songs is this ballad--a duet with the legendary American country singer.  I was a young teenager then--and like my current students, I was very naive--my idea of love was limited to the concept I thought I learned from movies, songs, and environment. It was the second track of the CD, if I'm not mistaken. During a boredom-filled afternoon, while my aunt was snoring, I popped the CD in our player and listened. I was totally disconnected with the first song--oh well, I cannot even recall what song it was--but when the second track started, with the outlandish and romantic tenor voice, the singer defined (or theorized) what love is. Perhaps, it was love at first note. There was no Internet then, so I reached for the CD album sleeve and checked if the lyrics of the song was there. It was. In an hour, the cd player looped and looped John Denver's song, and my ears were ringing with heavy words for the concept of love seems to make each word a chain ball fettered all over my being.

What a strange thing, this love. It meant everything and I didn't know what it meant. It took me years and years before I started to realize its essence. Since then, the education on love has never really stopped. It still continues to amaze and perplex me, usually in the most unexpected moments. Being (or used to being) good at mathematics and logic, I think love problems brought out the worst in me. I have humiliated myself so many times before I learned thoroughly these annoying lessons of love. And most of all, I have experienced being heartbroken that the term "falling in love" seemed to be an understatement: "plummeting in love" was almost fatal.   

Many people try to define what love is. Philosophers, Psychologists, Priests, Artists, and, heck, even Scientists. But maybe the concept of love cannot be contained in a simple definition, a complex formula, a thought-provoking theory, a beautiful sonnet.

Perhaps, love is just meant to be felt, not deconstructed.

Perhaps, love is just meant to be experienced, not abstracted.

Perhaps, love is just IS.

- James Nicolay