Ballad to Andrea

I found it most ironic that, in the course of the previous entry, Andrea said I was articulate. It was so because she had left me so speechless. I really didn’t know what to say. There were lots of things that I thought of saying, but nothing that came to mind were what I felt would be an appropriate response. After she saw me reading it, she asked if I left a comment. “Thank you sweetly” *blush*” or something like it would have so taken away from the sheer depth of her expression. Tonight I sat here for the nth time (rereading it) trying to arrive at some response which might match hers in sincerity.

So, what I arrived at as an appropriate way to respond is in the form of an analogy. Let us say that Andrea is a gem. Now, when the gems come out of the mine there are many levels of quality. And the quality is not normally determined by the size or shape of the gem but by the number of flaws there are in it. The reason for this is that the gems with flaws will not look as beautiful and startling as the ones without flaws. With either kind, the gems have to be cut and polished before they show much at all.

Before we can determine the quality and clarity of a gem, we need light. And so, for the purposes of the analogy, I would like you to consider me a light. The thing is, once a gem of high quality has been cut and polished, you really don’t need that great of a light to tell that you have a good one on your hands. It’s only when you have no light at all, that the quality is indeterminate. And a bright light differentiates between the fine and the finest. What makes the difference between the fine and the finest is the way the light reflects from its surface and refracts through the gem itself. The light shows off every line and facet of the gem. You see, the gem is really showing off the light and changing it from something which is daily around us into something which is quite dazzling. Where I am going here is that when I read over the things Andrea had written, I had thought of something which was in many ways quite ordinary being presented as quite dazzling.

To finish the analogy, what I have described about is a kind of pairing which was built into the nature of this world. You see, without something beautiful to shine on, light is just something we see by. A beautiful object, without any light, appears no different to us than a bland or ugly one. It is only when the two are together that you have something of indescribable beauty.

There is a whole list of qualities that I could list about Andrea, but I am not going to. She has told you so many of them while she was talking about me. There was only one which I felt needed mention. There are times when I have bad days and sometimes even bad weeks. Quite often during those times I stop treating her as though she is the most important person in the world. It is then that she is determined to have me go back to treating her that way.

Happy Anniversary sweetheart! (Sorry I was so late with the flowers).