love has everything to do with everything

8/8/2019 Love Has Everything to Do With Everything

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Love Has Everything to Do With Everything

If you¶ve raised a child, you know that a baby¶s total focus is on its own needs and

comfort. That self-absorbtion is essential to its survival. But as soon as a baby is

able to understand, he or she must be taught to switch from being self-absorbed to being aware that its needs are no more important than the needs of other members

of his or her immediate family. Eventually, the child must also learn that his or her

needs are no more important than those of everyone and everything else withwhom he or she shares life on Earth.

Every child develops their character based on what they perceive to be acceptable

and unacceptable behavior. This perception is developed by observing the way

people react to the appearance, behavior, manner of speaking and types of words

used by their parents, their siblings and everyone else whose behavior they witness

and/or experience, either first hand or via movies, books, magazines, television andradio. For example, behavior and styles of clothing worn by anyone perceived to

be a role model tends to be emulated by impressionable individuals who are

seeking to establish their personal identity and to gain the attention of those whose

attention they covet. In other words, everyone is seeking love and/or attention, and

they are willing to do almost anything to obtain the love and/or attention they seek.

Consequently, a child¶s parents, siblings, teachers and others who regularly interact

with him or her use the child¶s need for love and/or attention to reinforce the

child¶s perception of what is acceptable behavior and what is unacceptable

behavior. Therefore, everyone with whom the child interacts on a regular basiseither shows the child ³love´ or withholds it in order to obtain the desired result.

Of course, this tactic is most effective when all persons who are important to the

child project the same expectations and react in a consistent manner. This

consistency helps the child develop the kind of character he or she will need in

order to become a fully accepted member of their extended family as well associety as a whole.

The problem is, using ³love´ to teach children how to behave properly is only one

part of a parent¶s responsibility in teaching their children about ³love´. Parents

must also teach their children how to love, not only themselves but everyone elsewith whom they share Earth and its resources. How does one ³love´ everyone

else? The Christian Bible talks about ³agape´ love, that is, the love presented in

the Ten Commandments, but other religions have similar guidelines for howstrangers should ³love one another´.



Agape love is love practiced dutifully and without emotion. On the other hand,

there¶s another kind of love, the kind the French troubadours of the 13th

through

15th

called ³amore´. Their poetry glorified the powerful emotional response one

has to beauty beheld in another person by describing the passion one person can

evoke in another person, a passion that transcends sexual stimulation and focuseson the qualities that make that person uniquely attractive.

Since ³amore´ focuses on the special emotions a person experiences in response to

beauty beheld, its glorification was objectionable to the clergy of the day because

they believed ³amore´ would influence their followers to behave in ways the

Church found unacceptable. In other words, church leaders believed that the

concept of ³amore´ would disrupt the practice of ³agape love´ advocated by the

Church, because ³agape love´ does not focus on the unique qualities attributed toone individual or object compared to all others.

Consequently, they tried to stop the troubadours by arresting them and having them put to death, but the Church was not able to eradicate their ideas or prevent people

from experiencing the emotional impact evoked by experiencing natural beauty

first hand or by experiencing it vicariously through the descriptions provided by

the troubadors in their poetry. Sure enough, people began to accept that the

passionate emotions they experienced when they encountered a special person or a

remarkable landscape were OK, and they also began to realize that similar feelings

could be evoked by reading someone else¶s graphic description of the beauty they

had experienced or by viewing someone else¶s depiction of the beauty they had

witnessed. Eventually, people began to accept that these kinds of feelings arenormal and good, not abnormal and sinful as the Church would have them believe.

As a result, they began to distrust the impersonal dictates of the Church, and

eventually the Church¶s control over the daily lives of the followers began toerode.

Unfortunately, this trend away from the practice of ³agape love´ in impersonal

relationships has resulted in increasing selfishness, and selfishness eventually leads

to chaos because people no longer feel compelled to adhere to the dictates of the

Golden Rule, ie ³Do unto others as you would have them do unto you´, and the

Golden Rule is simply a succinct instruction for how to practice ³agape love´.Therefore, having everyone practice ³agape love´ by adhering to the Golden Rule

is essential to creating a world-wide attitude of inclusiveness that will make it morelikely that the survivablity of the Human species will be prolonged indefinitely.

Without ³agape love´, the world is threatened with chaos. Without ³amore´, the

world is likely to become an ever more unpleasant place in which to live.



Consequently, both kinds of love are essential and must be kept in balance if Humanity is going to survive itself and realize its full potential.

love has everything to do with everything

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