Ladder Love

Love is a ladder-like-process, I think, when one is first exposed to love. For most, that happens from childhood onwards. My friend Mary and I used to take care of pine cones, and make clothes for them out of leaves. We named all of them and took care of them; it was a great. And some years later in a junior high PE class, we adopted another pine cone (for old times) and named him Paul. We took him everywhere, and he became the mascot for our class until he died in a tragic track accident one day. Our class held a funeral; it was beautiful.
But I digress. Anyway, once we get to a certain point on the ladder, and once puberty gives us a visit, that ladder gets skewed or splits or something, because instead of reaching for one, basic love, we find ourselves presented with many, many forms of love. I heard this quote from the movie "Mansfield Park" that says, "There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time." One loves family, friends, other friends, boys, girls, all in different ways. There's friendship love, romantic love, affectionate love, familial (sometimes forced) love, etc. But I think if the basics are down, all other forms of love are easily mastered. When confusion comes, I grant you, it does get tricky, and the whole base can come tumbling down. I had a friend in ninth grade, a guy friend, whom I cared for, and still care for deeply. He was easy to talk to and we had a lot in common. We spent a great amount of time together, because we were such good friends and because we were in the same group of friends, and I found myself loving him. This wasn't a "boyfriend" kind of love, but it was a great, deep love. I would've done anything for this guy; I loved his mind, personality, beliefs. . . I loved hanging out with him and giving him hugs. We were ridiculously close, and then we fell apart because we were on different ladders. The whole nature of the love we had shattered, and we fell apart. At this point, I think, this is where many people don't think a friendship is worth it. But I think when we truly, really love somebody and when we are willing to fight for the relationship, we can make it work. It's been a difficult process, and a really awkward one, but we have rebuilt our ladder. It's taken us a few years, but we are now as good of friends as we've ever been (he's one of the best friends I have) and in a lot of ways, our love is richer.