To be honest the fact that its a song sung by a black female in which she is not demanding respect, not talking about rent, not asking what a suitor can do for her (money), not singing anthems regarding the dog nature of men and not yapping about a man putting a ring on her finger then its actually refreshing. Its like the equivalent of a gangsta rapper NOT talking about getting benjamins, bragging about violence and getting pussy. You start to celebrate the song not for what it is but for what it isn't. I think both black men and black women have dropped the ball in urban music when it comes to the subject of love (the 1970s puts this current era of music to shame). Still its at least noteworthy that this song is not 1000th anthem about how a woman doesn't need a man. There are plenty of those type of tunes out there so how could this one single song have a greater influence on the black female public?
I hardily agree with your take on this song.
I also know that true love is not desperate or needy.
I also know it takes a very courageous heart to live true love in a savage world that spends the majority of its time loving itself.
I also know that the world disses "love conquers all" because to love someone so deeply that you allow them to hurt you is seen as a weakness not a strength.
I attribute that to our society that has forgotten how to love other first.
We live in a defensive, selfish society that cries out for love, greedily takes it and then cries foul when the same consideration is asked.
Christ died on the cross because of HIS love for us.
He died knowing full well that more would reject him than accept him and yet he still loved.
It wasn't his love of himself that caused him to suffer on the cross.
It was his love for humanity that caused him to be nailed to the cross and speared in the side.
Do you know that crucifixtion is a slow torturous suffocation?
How many of you would do that for someone?
That slow torturous suffocation was why the solider thrust the spear into his side - to speed the death process up because of the hour of the day.
I will never consider Christ's meekness (strength controlled by love) as a weakness - far from it - and the world abuses him 24/7 to this day.
He gave up his rights to take on the form of man in order to redeem man with his love. That takes big kahouna's ladies and gentlemen.
Do you dare try to match it?
I will put it to you that the person that needs to change is not the person with the heart of love but the person that abuses that heart of love for his/her own selfishness that is afraid to be humbled by the heart of love.
A woman and/or man who lives love in my opinion is a much stronger more secure woman/man than any woman/man who must always be defending her/his own selfishness.
She/he is secure because agape love controls her/him not the selfish prideful love that is passed off as love in those 1000 anthems Jamal mentions above.
I'm not saying the lyrics of this song illustrates a woman who lives love.
I'm commenting on Jamal's take as embolden in his quote above.
The lyrics do illustrate the internal battle within all of us that must make the choices between other and self every day.
Do I advocate a woman staying with an abusive man?
No.
I believe she is freed from such a bond because the man has reneged on his responsibility to love the woman.
What I'm saying here is why is the woman getting the bum rap for wanting to love, when it is her nature to love?