Lovin'

Two things happened this morning that got me thinking about the difference in lovin' and love. The first thing was when I saw this sign advertising hamburgers that said: I'm lovin' it. And the second was when I walked by Jasper's Cafe and Lounge and heard Hank Williams blasting out "Why don't you love me like you used to do?" Then came the words: "Ain't had no lovin' in a long long time." All that shifted my mind back, I reckon over seventy years, when I was playing in the dirt underneath my grandma's porch. I loved to play there because it was cool and because it was dirty and I was really invested in dirt during those years. This day, my grandma and a friend of hers, Loraleen Deere, were swinging in the front porch swing. They didn't know I was there. They began to discuss their husbands and the thing I remember was Loraleen telling grandma that Jethrow, her husband, was real good at lovin' but didn't know nothing about love. At the time I didn't have a clue what she meant, but the intensity of her voice and the emphasis on the word "lovin'" stuck with me. For some reason that day has come back to me over and over in my life particularly when I caught myself in a situation when I was deeply interested in lovin' and had no regard what-so-ever for love. I ain't bragging, I'm confessing.