A short essay concerning Love. |
These last two years on the road has made me aware of a terrifying observation. We live in a society that fears love. I have given a slight example of my observations and experiences with love. Reading much of Mozi a Chinese Philosopher during the Hundred Schools of Thought Period, has led me to some interesting findings as well as reflecting on forgotten memories of my own personal history. I have never agreed with much of my Father's side of the family. Their conservative nature is in deep contrast to my own ideology. But I have always found one deep and powerful anecdote that rings of great truth that they habitually repeat. "Love is Sacrifice". There is so much truth into this simple explanation for what so many consider such a broad concept. With this obscure sense of subjectivity we see a universal disconnect. There in lies the paradox of choice in an option driven society. We categorize love like we do to so many other mundane and trivial things. A categorizing or labeling of love is the same as an expectation or condition. Mozi suggests that love is universal, "that people in principle should care for all people equally". Our modern paradigm directly conflicts with this philosophy. We embrace the individual at the expense of the community. It is our own ego that perpetuates this twisted ideology. We above all else have demand for what we desire. Our own selfish desires drown out true vision & clarity. Our own selfish attachments that keep us from overlooking the faults of others and naively puts us above others. It puts image over substance. It puts a demand for a constant penchant for self stimulation, manipulation and deception. It is this Cult of Self that keeps us from understanding and experiencing love. We are consumed with the idea of "ME!" Yet this selfish ideology only keeps us in a state of none growth and bias. We as a society are emotionally, psychologically and intellectually unprepared for love. We fear love because we do not know what love is, because we have made love so broad a term that the gap that it has created can never be filled. |