Alone, to, Long

It's a funny thing, the way we read things or hear them, sometimes. For a very long time, back in the 90s, I thought that really popular song by Live went, "I long to love you" etc. etc. - and then I discovered that its title was "I Alone" ...

Oh, I thought to myself. So it's I alone to love you. I liked the change, but found both iterations poetic in their way. I don't think I ever really looked at it again ... until for no good reason, other than my Slacker radio played the song earlier, I decided I would look up the words.

As it turns out, the "to" isn't in there. Like "wu wei" or "wei wu wei", the mere matter of one very small word can really change things.

I alone love you
I alone tempt you
I alone love you
fear is not the end of this!

Put this way, it's a far more spare and profound statement than "I long to love you" or "I alone to love you" ... and, as these rediscoveries sometimes to in my brain, it's a bracing sort of revisitation of meaning.

And I always love that last line, too. Fear ... is usually only the beginning!