Yesterday, on my way to school a middle-aged man in a mini-van cut me off. My first reaction was one of anger but that was before I noticed his bumper sticker. It was very simple, black letters on a white background: I choose Love. That was it. I choose Love. Immediately my attitude changed from anger to curiosity. This bumper sticker said so much more than three words, yet I was more interested in what it didn’t say. It didn’t say who could love whom, or how one should love; just that he chose to.
I believe that love does not discriminate. It used to be that people of different race couldn’t legally get married, but now the issue isn’t race, it’s gender. I find it odd that a country that used to be so set on conformity and keeping the same type of people together now wants to keep them apart. In both cases, what they’re doing is wrong. In complete disregard for the law, as it has always done, love brings together whomever it wants. If you’ve ever seen two people that really love each other, there is nothing else like it. I’ve been to my share of weddings over the years and all of them have been tremendously happy occasions, however this past fall, I attended my first lesbian wedding.
It was just like any other wedding I’d ever been to. There was a reverend, flowers, music, families, and an abundance of happy faces. I saw two people who wanted nothing more than to completely give of themselves to the other, and to share their lives. I saw smiles and tears of happiness. I only noticed two differences between this wedding and my brother’s a couple of years ago: here there were two women and here the term was union. My brother’s marriage didn’t last six months, yet our government says that he has more of a right to marriage than the women whose ceremony I attended this fall. He can get married and divorced however many times he wants, but two women who are completely committed to each other can’t, legally, get married even once.
I’ve seen many relationships succeed and just as many fail but the one thing they all had in common was love, whether it lasted or not. Love brings people together for mysterious reasons and I know sometimes it can appear to be a stretch; we’ve all looked at a friend or relative and wondered what on earth they saw in their significant other, but it’s usually something no third party can understand. I think this is our biggest obstacle. We’ve learned to look beyond skin color but what most people still can’t do is accept that the reasons why two people fall in love are not for everyone to understand. They cannot and should not be defined. Love is indefinable. I choose not to question it, I choose not to explain it, I choose Love.