To love is to take one side of the argument and hold it fast unto death

“To love is to take one side of the argument and hold it fast unto death” is Hig’s compressed account of love as a binding commitment, not a feeling that can simply be reasoned away. In the aftermath of losing Melissa and Jasper, the line joins devotion to the painful fact that devotion cannot prevent death.

Wording and Meaning

The sentence turns on the image of taking a side. Love is described as an act of allegiance: a person plants both feet on one side and remains there. The phrase “hold it fast unto death” makes that commitment absolute, extending it to the limit of mortality. The reference to an “argument” does not identify a particular dispute; instead, it gives love the shape of a position one chooses and refuses to abandon.

The Moment of Its Use

Hig speaks the words while addressing Jasper as “bud,” in a passage that names what remains of his old life as everything that was before, except for a dog, a wife, and the familiar noise of their shared world. The line is therefore not an abstract maxim detached from experience. It rises from the contrast between enduring attachment and irreversible absence: the commitment survives, but those to whom it was made are gone.

Grief and the Limits of Speech

The surrounding reflection questions whether talking can hold loss at bay. Hig recognizes that neither he nor the one he addresses could talk their way out of what happened, yet the expression itself gives their bond a form that can be spoken. Its insistence on choosing and holding fast stands beside the image of two companions going up the trail, now reduced to one. Love persists as loyalty, but it does not restore the lost companion or make grief manageable.