Unconditional Love

"Love is patient, love is kind," says the Good Book. Patient love is easy to print on a coffee mug but difficult to achieve.

The love that First Corinthians is referring to is unconditional. How many of us can truly say "no matter what you do I will always love you"? Unconditional love is so exceedingly rare that it's considered an aspect of the Divine.

Conditional love is common. We see it behind family estrangements and, of course, in couples splitting up. One also sees conditional love at the beginning of people coming together. It's the stuff of romantic drama, as lovers take tentative steps toward each other, wondering if they can trust.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, Carousel, celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. A huge hit in its day, Carousel is largely unfamiliar to younger audiences, though You'll Never Walk Alone and If I Loved You are still popular.

Which brings this post back to the original topic. If one Googles "conditional love music", at the top of the search is If I Loved You, which, if one is only familiar with the song, is a revelation when one listens to the entire 11-minute set-piece ("the bench scene") of dialogue and music. Below is a YouTube clip of Broadway stars performing it in studio and street clothes with just a piano accompaniment.