Love's Object

Saw a really great film given to me by one of my friends who lives in Romania. I don't even know what it's called - it was a documentary of Jacques Derrida. This American film crew basically followed Derrida around for a bit, filming lectures, a visit to Mandela's prison cell, and a surprisingly large number of meals (Derrida eats toast with butter and jam, microwaved eggplant, prawn crisps with champaign, and some other random things).
Anyway, the great bit was when the director asks him to talk about love. First he rants about how that's not a question, he can't possibly say anything about love, and that they should think of a question to ask him. But then he says this (I'm paraphrasing):
The question, when you love someone, is 'Do you love them as a person, or do you love something about them?' Because if you love them as a person, as a singular entity, then that love is permanent, whereas when you love them for something - this is much more temporary. The question is, do you love someone or something? And then he says that the reason most people stop loving someone is because they have loved something about that person, and that thing has changed.
I shared these thoughts today with some guys at a breakfast down in Waterloo, and then told the story of Hosea from the Bible. God asks Hosea to marry a prostitute, and after she runs off, God tells Hosea to buy her back again. Then God says "This is how I love my people".