Because of my life history I have spent a lot of time reflecting on love. C. S. Lewis also spent a lot of time thinking about love.

It has been almost 20 years since I first met Sister Joan Michele Rake. When I first met her I had just finished reading C. S. Lewis’s The Four Loves. When I mentioned that to her she remarked that she had written her Master’s thesis on friendship and that The Four Loves was the major source of her work.

Here is an excerpt from the First Edition of the book, “Love has not one, but many faces. C. S. Lewis, in this candid, wise, and warmly personal book, describes the four basic kinds of human love – affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God. Rarely has anyone moved so quickly and so unerringly to the heart of the matter, permitting the reader to feel that he is sharing in the most intimate and private thoughts of a rich and free spirit.”

I cherish Sister Joan Michele and my memories of her. My friendship with her was pivotal for me. To explain that would require many, many words and that will have to wait.

I am grateful for the friends I have had and do have in my life and I do spend time reflecting on them. It almost goes without saying that I am not using Facebook’s usage of the word “friends.”

Obviously, there are many ways in which relationships which we may call friendships or loving relationships can fail to meet the high standards described by C. S. Lewis.

Before I learned of Aunt Polly’s death – triggering the present reflecting – I had started to reread C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces – A Myth Retold. This is a retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche. It is a wonderful book about love and I wholeheartedly recommend reading it. This is a great lecture by Ryan Reeves on the book. See also this video.

C. S. Lewis dedicates the book to Joy Davidman – which, to me, says it all.