Gilda

Ok, maybe it's because I've just spent most of the afternoon reading Silver Age DC comics, which in large doses have been known to temporarily lower IQ's and impair reading ability for other materials, but I've read this like a gazillion times and I'm not sure exactly what the things being contrasted are.

"The dilemma, the delicious tension between", I'm cool with it up to that point. But it requires the contrast of two points there, and I'm not quite seeing whether there are two separate comparisons or one big one. To wit, does this mean that there is tension between A: what we know and B: our safety and additionally between C: how we're thought of and D: setting aside everything else for our heart's desire. Or is it one big comparison between A: what we already know and our safety and how we're thought of and B: setting aside everything else for our heart's desire. Or is it one big comparison between A: what we already know and our safety and B:how we're thought of, and of setting aside everything else for our heart's desire.

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Since I can't untangle that, I'll just respond to the parable. There are several possible lessons here.

1. Several monks privately loved her, but only one actually said so. Because he took the risk, he's the only one in line for the reward, her love in return.

2. There is a contrast between how the monk expressed his love and how the nun responded. He tried to hide it from the others, while she wanted open expression right up front. He was brave enough to risk rejection, but not public rejection. This really amounts the the same type of lesson, that you have to be willing to risk loss to make a gain, but on a different level.

Her response can be interpreted one of two ways.

A. "Embrace me now" is her way of saying she returns her love, but will only love him if their love is publicly known. Doing so in private would be to imply that there was something shameful about it.

B. She might also, rather than declaring that she returns his love, be saying that a private note isn't enough. He must first make a public declaration, and then she will entertain the idea of returning it.

If we look at the title, that should give us some clue as to the intended meaning. Is it about risk taking leading to a reward, or is it about the nature of what a loving relationship truly is?

"If You Love, Love Openly" seems to me to imply that it's the latter. It's not really love if it must be hidden. With this, I'm going with interpretation 2A: She was prepared to return his love, but only if he were prepared to take the risk of declaring it publicly.

I think it would work better as a lesson about risk taking if he had sent the love not anonymously, and she had stood and declared to the crowd as a whole, not knowing who wrote it, "If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now." However, the story makes it clear that he identified himself and she knew precisely who it was and addressed him directly in public.

So, combined with the title, it seems to be more about what love is, rather than how to find love.

Well, that's a complete muddled mess. I'm going to reread it tomorrow and see if I can make sense of it then.

Gilda