So Saul is slowly, or not so slowly, losing his grip on his sanity. At least two of his children love David enough to take his side and help him escape attempts to execute him. It’s all very epic and very sad.
A lot has been written on David and Jonathan, and what I want to say is: we really need this beautiful example of selfless platonic love. And I think any controversy over the language used to describe their relationship is symptomatic of an over-sexualized culture. We hear ‘love’ and we can only think of one thing. The Hebrew language is pretty clear. Or, rather, it’s specifically vague, in that it doesn’t use any of the words exclusively used for sexual relationships.
Romantic/sexual relationships may be the most prominent relationships in our lives considering that we tend to live with our partners, but they are actually the minority of the relationships that we’ll have. We all know how many romantic/sexual relationships we’ve been in. Many of us can tell you how many good friends we have, though even still most will have to stop and tally them up. But can you tell me how many people you’re friends with? Not close friends, just the ones you’d introduce as your friend. What about the acquaintances? The people you just know? I tried, once, and stopped at a few hundred or so.
Let’s focus on those good friends, the ones you would say you love. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were more comfortable to just say that? To say “I love you?” Don’t you want people to know you love them? Surely you want them to know they are loved?
People are so lonely today. Our culture has forgotten how to be friends. Women can’t trust each other. Men can’t be emotional at all, much less with each other. Men and women can’t be friends without it being sexual. These are all messages we’re bombarded with almost constantly. So whenever we see closeness, intimacy, our minds immediately go to the only type of intimacy left to us: sexual.
I cannot tell you how encouraged I am with the push for more friendship in media. We’re seeing a rehabilitation of female friendship. We’re seeing healthier, more expressive men. People are clamoring for found family. And the more that gets produced, the more proof there is that people are hungry for platonic intimacy. We are social beings. We are made to interact with others, to love others and be loved.
I’ll be writing about Michal eventually.