You Should Let Me Love You

Recently, I have been spending some time with a certain young man whom I had been acquainted with for a couple of years. He’s a good guy – proof that chivalry is not dead, a true Southern gentleman. Plus, I think he’s adorable. People have often seen us together and commented on what a nice pair we make.

There’s just one problem: He’s jaded.

A couple of years ago, he was involved with a young woman whom… made him suspicious of all females. It’s always the ones like her that give women like me a bad name. She clearly didn’t felt about him the way he felt about her… something that I and a couple other friends tried to point out regularly through their couple of years long relationship. She was jealous and spiteful; clingy and unappreciative of the things she did for him. Eventually, they broke up for good and all were relieved.

But as he and I began to spend more and more time together, I could see the psychic scars that she left on him. He would ask me questions as to why the man should be expected to do this, that and the other. He doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s day. He was totally unromantic and jealous at the same time – things that made me question whether or not I wanted to spend time with him or not.

Because we have been friends for awhile, I know why he is the way he is. It’s just up to me to figure out if I have the time and patience to rehab him from his current malady.

I’m twenty five years old and while I thought I have been in love a couple of times, I can say that I have never been head over heels, bite my tongue (reference to the movie Breaking All the Rules with Jamie Foxx) kind of crazy in love. And… I want that. And I’m thinking that maybe I won’t get that from this young man, but I haven’t decided yet if its my responsibility to show him that he deserves that kind of love too.

I thought a lot about this last night because I have a girlfriend who is experiencing that kind of love right now. It’s a lot like the children’s book where the two rabbits are telling each other how much they love each other and it’s always more and bigger than the other person. And after watching my parents who have been hopelessly in love for thirty five years and others like them, I think I have figured out that is the key to having that kind of love.

One cannot protect oneself and love fully. It can’t be done. In order to have that head over hills, bite your tongue kind of crazy love, you have to be willing to fall with no safety net. If you love someone with everything you have… and that person knows what’s up, that person will love you better than you could ever love yourself.

I think that was why Mario’s song, You Should Let Me Love You is such a great song. You should let me love you/ Let me be the one to/ Give you everything you want and need/ Baby good love and protection/ Make me your selection/ Show you the way love’s supposed to be.

Now it could be argued that if I were to fall for that young man without a safety net, then he would be able to learn what love is about and return that emotion. But here’s the thing, he may never know and then I would have wasted that on him and might end up in the same mindset that he is in. The trick is knowing who that person is who is the one that should receive that love that is always bigger and more…

That I haven’t quite figured out yet.