Love's Transforming Power

To understand hot, you need to know of cold.
To understand love, you need to know of hate;
yes, you need to know of that timeless bane.
And it is not too difficult these days,
because hatred remains all too common.
Perhaps you see it in family, like I see it in mine;
the overt racism, the homophobia, the self-
righteousness, the eagerness to judge and condemn.
Maybe you have been spared such family shame. 
And if so, that’s fine, yet you can still find hate
lurking and seething elsewhere--it is easy to recognize,
and its stench can overwhelm.

Therefore, with lines drawn, with the knowledge
of hate fully ingrained in consciousness,
love can be known and appreciated.
Once, right after 9-11, a televangelist
blamed Gays and Lesbians for the event.
Another one concurred wholeheartedly. 
This was hatred of the highest degree.
Yet at the other end of the spectrum is the
counselor with family (including grand-kids),
who, despite her overwhelming work load,
still finds time to return a call, after hours,
to lend a sympathetic ear and give advice.

Love is reason and understanding, and not a finger in your face.
Love is courage and not fear--the fear brought on by differences.
And love is giving and not the all too common mien of take;
take is ultimately weak, whereas giving is a strong virtue.

And therein is the power of love.
To be sure, there will always be those
who will remain totally impervious to love,
like someone holding a Bible high with one hand
while extending the middle finger with the other.
But they only serve as dark examples of evil;
that dichotomy is there so we know what to avoid.
Because love is strong enough to stand on its own
and the last thing it is, unlike the bankruptcy of the hate-
mongers, is desperate--it simply doesn’t need to be.  Love
can build a constitution, provide identity and assuredness,
and embrace logic and reason with comforting strength.

40 Lines
Writer’s Cramp Winner
June 22, 2014