Here's my rather over-developed take on LAmovrevx:
Many are quick to read individuation as the heart of this image : Youth stepping out beyond the safety and security of home, the Court of the Mother, into the new world of the Spouse or of adult living—certainly a terribly important threshold to cross. Others will focus on the rich allegorical potentialities arising from a discussion of the
Herculean choice between Virtue and Vice.
For me, this is an image about love and fulfillment in love and relationship. The love of a spouse, of a friend, of a country, of an ideal, of a trade or creative endeavor, the image reminds us that love, while always an expression of emotion or passion, is also a choice and associated with that choice, there are always consequences. This choice may play havoc with your current plans, goals, achievements, but it may be the very Life of your life.
The
blind Cupid can remind us that sometimes it is not so much ourselves that choose Love ; but it is Love that chooses us—taking us beyond ourselves for weal or woe.
We may not get to choose whom or what we love—or what or whom we may cease to love, but we do get to choose how we will respond to Love and to the responsibilities that arise from it. Will you choose Love over duty ; Love over comfort ; Love over desire ; Love over respectability? Will you nurture Love or reject it? And when you have chosen Love, will you own-up to the responsibilities that flow from that choice? This last may be the challenge that the image lays before each of us!
On the other hand, the Pope reminds us that there are things in this life more important than position, power, family. . . Perhaps LOVE provides a clue to what that might be, or a path towards its attainment.
CED