Love and Sharing

Our favorite 10-year old was struggling a few months ago with the idea of sharing and more specifically sharing his parents and them sharing their love with others.  Our family has six members and Dad’s family also has six members.  He has two stepbrothers at each house, and of course the big brother I was nice enough to burden him with, for a total of five brothers when you add them all up.  Trying to draw some conclusions from what he was able to articulate about what was bothering him, we offered an analogy.  It is pertinent at this point to know that this little boy eats more than his mother most meal times and is fondly referred to by his brothers as the garbage disposal.  

Perhaps that is why we thought to compare love and sharing to a big pie.

We had his attention immediately although not necessarily for the right reasons.  I asked him how large each piece of the pie would be if it represented all my love and I shared it between him and his brother equally.  Easy!  Half each he said, looking mildly like he had no intention of sharing a pie with his brother when he knew he would want to savor that crust and warm fruity inside all by himself.  Next I asked how much everyone would get if I equally divided my pie between him, his brother, his Stepdad and his two stepbrothers.  I think he was still trying to figure out when he was going to get an actual slice of pie and hesitantly said that each would receive a fifth.  I was feeling pretty good about the direction we were heading in and said that although that would be the case with an ordinary pie, love is no ordinary pie.  

This pie, I elaborated, is never-ending and you will never run out of love pie.  The more pie you eat, the more pie there is…big brown happy eyes looked up at me.  He realized that I was saying that our family may have grown but there was plenty of love to go around.  Everybody’s portion did not get smaller in fact, the portions get bigger each day and there are more people to share their pies.  I could see that in his mind he was having seconds and thirds.  My analogy had taken on a life of its own when he brought me back down to earth and said, “I get it Mom.  Can we have dinner now?  I’m hungry!”

Real love is indefinable and unconditional.  It is one of the few things in our lives that can grow and grow and yet does not become unmanageable.  It is both nebulous and demonstrated in everyday actions.  It is whole and complete and demands nothing in return.  If our boy equates the love he has for pie and multiplies it by an indescribably large factor he still will not come close to knowing how loved he and his brothers are; perhaps we’ll make them a pie instead ;o)