What Love is Like

             Far too many people accept that God is Love without giving it any thought and those same people assume without reflection that they are loving people when, more times than not, that simply isn't the case.

             True Love always has a cost and that cost is putting someone else's needs before your own. Many people think that "For this moment I will treat you as if you are as important as me" is showing Love, which it isn't.

             I'll tell you a story about Love and how it often costs. I was helping out with Van Decar's The Miracle Worker and he showed up to the show where I was doing the make-up inebriated and ticked off. He walked in and said, "I see that Mr. Paciorek has taken over my show!"

            I spoke to him privately just before the show began and asked him about the insulting comment. He got emotional and shared that the show meant a lot to him and that the cast didn't seem to respect him and that hurt his feelings.

             I left and went to Hallmark cards and bought him a director's gift. I gave it to the kids to present to him at the end of the show. They were a bit confused but did as I asked of them. At the curtain call he went up and accepted the gift from them and then went on and on about how special the show and the cast was to him while the kids passed confused and furtive glances between them.

             When I saw him after the show he lorded over me how the cast cared for him and the subtext, which seemed to please him, was that they hadn't thought my contribution significant enough to acknowledge.

             In a matter of just a couple of hours I had been publicly insulted, I had spent my own money on a man who had little respect for me and I had been shamed for the anonymous gift that I had given - and I wouldn't have done it any other way. I could've revealed where the gift had come from but that would've just put him back into the black hole that the gift had brought him out of. It was better that he thought too much of himself than not enough.

             THAT is what Love is like. It raises someone else up and often comes with an emotional price tag.