Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Unconditional Love
As part of my exercises in Awareness, I have noticed that what I am seeking in my interactions with others is “unconditional love”. This was confirmed by a recent article In our culture, sex and power are rarely as simple as 'yes' or 'no'. I read. In this article, the writer suggests that although we are all seeking unconditional love, and most people see that as being achieved through intimacy, that many people, the writer included reject intimacy in favour of sex. Although the term ‘unconditional love’ is one that I have heard many times before, I decided to try to approach it with new eyes. My first step was a Google search and one of the first articles I found was The myth of unconditional love. This surprised and disappointed me. To say that uncondional love is a myth, because humans are incapable of it seems particularly destructive. Is Perfection a myth, just because humans are incapable of achieving it. What about Heaven. I can understand the argument that for us to achieve unconditional love in this life is the same as suggesting that we can achieve “enlightenment” (actually when I think about it it is exactly the same.) But what the author of this article is suggesting is that it is okay not to give unconditional love. While I agree that we should not beat ourselves up if we are unable to give unconditional love, this almost sounds like a justification for withholding unconditional love. In fact the author seems to suggest that God’s love is only for the believers. How convenient. I guess we can draw that circle as tightly as we like and still feel okay about it. How strange that people who obviously ‘commit their lives to God’ are unable to feel the heartbeat of God in the world around them.
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As part of my exercises in Awareness, I have noticed that what I am seeking in my interactions with others is “unconditional love”. This was confirmed by a recent article In our culture, sex and power are rarely as simple as 'yes' or 'no'. I read. In this article, the writer suggests that although we are all seeking unconditional love, and most people see that as being achieved through intimacy, that many people, the writer included reject intimacy in favour of sex. Although the term ‘unconditional love’ is one that I have heard many times before, I decided to try to approach it with new eyes. My first step was a Google search and one of the first articles I found was The myth of unconditional love. This surprised and disappointed me. To say that uncondional love is a myth, because humans are incapable of it seems particularly destructive. Is Perfection a myth, just because humans are incapable of achieving it. What about Heaven. I can understand the argument that for us to achieve unconditional love in this life is the same as suggesting that we can achieve “enlightenment” (actually when I think about it it is exactly the same.) But what the author of this article is suggesting is that it is okay not to give unconditional love. While I agree that we should not beat ourselves up if we are unable to give unconditional love, this almost sounds like a justification for withholding unconditional love. In fact the author seems to suggest that God’s love is only for the believers. How convenient. I guess we can draw that circle as tightly as we like and still feel okay about it. How strange that people who obviously ‘commit their lives to God’ are unable to feel the heartbeat of God in the world around them.
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