Albert Camus wrote that the only serious question is whether to kill yourself or not.Tom Robbins wrote that the only serious question is whether time has a beginning and an end.Camus clearly got up on the wrong side of bed and Robbins must have forgotten to set the alarm.There is only one serious question. And that is Who knows how to make love stayAnswer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself.

When two people meet and fall in love theres a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the magic is gone. We hustle to get it back but by then its usually too late weve used it up. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic right from the start. Its hard work but if we can remember to do it we greatly improve our chances of making love stay.

Who knows how to make love stay1. Tell love you are going to Juniors Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake and if loves stays it can have half. It will stay.2. Tell love you want a momento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yinyang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a moustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay.3. Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning.

Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just wont adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words make and stay become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.