The Way I see it

In 1958, John Steinbeck responded to a letter that his son wrote admitting that he had fallen in love with a girl at boarding school. I'll be posting a few of my favourite excerpts from it here over the next few days, but if you can't wait, the whole letter is linked at the bottom of this post.

"First -- if you are in love -- that's a good thing -- that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you.
Second -- There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you -- of kindness and consideration and respect -- not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had."

- John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter