John C. Morgan: What’s love got to do with it? - The Reporter

What’s love got to do with it?

Everything.

It’s why when the philosopher Bertrand Russell when asked in an interview what he thought his years of teaching had taught him, replied simply: “Love is wise, hatred is foolish.”

Love creates and supports; hatred tears down and destroys.

But what is love?

The Greeks had three words for love that help unlock its meaning. “Eros” is passionate or emotional love. It sometimes masquerades as romantic love, but that is a holdover from a different culture and age. “Filial” is brotherly or sisterly love, often thought of as deep and abiding friendships. “Agape” is self-giving love, the kind which cares for another without preconditions.

Just as there is fake news, there is also fake love, the kind which is a state of mind aroused by public media. This kind of love attracts quickly and just as quickly dissolves. There is another kind of false love that pretends to love another but only for what one can get from them. It eventually collapses on itself. And there is another less obvious kind of fake love that purports to love the whole world, just not the person nearby. Eventually, it collapses unto itself.

Hatred, too, comes with many fake sirens. Self-hated feeds upon itself and leads to suffering. There is the hatred of others who are different from oneself. We put them down to make ourselves feel stronger, but only grow weaker within. And finally, there is a kind of dangerous hatred that encompasses the world itself. It ends causing suffering to everyone, including oneself.

Most of us think love is individual, but it also has a social dimension. The wider form of love often is seen as justice — fairness and respect for the social fabric which binds people into deeper relationships. Justice is love in action, treating each person as equally important in the web of life.

One common teaching in many world wisdom traditions is to treat others as one would wish to be treated. It’s the heart of what is meant by a just society, where love guides.

Spiritual traditions speak of compassion as a guiding principle of life. Secular traditions speak of love as well in terms of the principles which bind us together: equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

What’s love got to do with it?

Everything.

John C. Morgan is a teacher and writer.

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