Of the recent request for articles by our webmaster, I thought the request for articles on love would not be for me. His request was: Love - Articles probing the infinite complexities of this unique human emotion belong here.

Something happened to me today that changed my mind. After I display my ignorance about love (and if you will forgive this hack writer), I’ll get right to it.

I had never written about love in the context of “the infinite complexities of this unique human emotion.” There are sex scenes in my novels tamed down by the moral code my mother left to me.

In Revenge on the Mogollon Rim there is pathos in the death of the bride of the protagonist although he was always separated from her. In other scenes, human complexities are visible if you think about it. One of the complexities is a pregnant wife. Her irate husband drives young Peter Ott to ride out of thar.

But my novels are not about love.

Well, I guess I lied about that. There is an exception.

Bull is a western saga where Bull is captivated by a certain young lady he has put on a pedestal. Putting her on a pedestal thwarts his love attempts. He is always two slow to catch her on the bounce. She has married three times before Bull lands her near the end of the novel. She has twin boys but they are not Bull’s.

Love is not a factor in my detective novels except for the love that Richard Lacey has for his sweetheart who is his secretary in Bone China whom he is married to in In No Way Guilty There is infatuation in these novels as Lacey works with classy clients and associates and resists temptation. He is always true to his wife.

I learned in college that love comes in three flavors. Quarks come in six flavors. (Quarks were added here to keep the interest of my scientific readers.) There is physical love not to be completely confused with the sinful lust you see on television. It might be similar acts with dignity.

Next is spiritual love like we have for God (and He for us according to those who know). Spiritual love does not have to be between God and Women. (I used “women” here because I don’t want to put God into the Gay Movement.) Spiritual love is often attained by librarians (for children) and veterinarians (for animals). It should be part of “love and marriage.” The thought here might be that we become the parents of God’s children.

The last type of love is plutonic love. Hi, Buddy! Let’s go down to the ol’ swimmin’ hole and cool off. You know; friendship. That is important in marriage too.

I recently uploaded an article called Lessons for Living: Marriage which is better on that subject than what I’m writing here.

Now there is maternal love, fraternal love, brotherly love, sisterly love, and animal love, but the three I mentioned, spiritual, physical, and plutonic love where the ones we studied at the University of Utah when I got back from Korea where love was generally missing.

Having bored most everybody away, I will now tell you who stayed what happened today.

I was a church leader over the years. Despite the fact that I haven’t served in an administrative capacity for years, I still get calls from church members living in various parts of the country. Sometimes they ask me for advice.

We have a friend living in the Southwest whom we knew in New Jersey. Let’s call her Annie. She called me last year notifying us of the death of her husband. She has moved since and found new associates. Annie is 86 years old and she is in love.

She told me today that she has been associating with a man of 69 years. There relationship is not a sexual one, it’s not strictly plutonic. Annie is just as in love with this man as she was with her husband. She is giddy, excited, happy, flustered, confused, whimsical, whirling, wild, and woozy. (I got the last four words by inserting “giddy” in the search box at http://thesaurus.reference.com.)

Annie wanted to know if she was wrong in associating with this man who loves her, cooks for her, and who bought her a new walker. I told her it was absolutely wonderful that she could be in love again and that she could marry the man if she loved him. That made her very happy. I felt like God.

That must be one of the complexities of love that our webmaster was talking about. She felt guilty for loving a man other than her late husband. Love can come on fast and threaten stable relationships. Infatuation quickly turns to love. It’s the nature of the beast. So we must be careful what we do when we feel these urges of infatuation that lead to love. But if we are free and easy, we shouldn’t worry about past relationships. We should not feel guilty for being in love. We should enjoy the springtime. And age doesn’t count.

Maybe I will write a love story someday. Well, I doubt that. After reading this article, I’m sure of it.