“I love that! Oh but I hate that!” These expressions have become very common in our society so much so that they seem to have lost their meaning and depth.
A friend posted on her face book page addressing the Love part: “People seem to take advantage of the word Love. 'I love this song/this candy/this book/etc.' It feels faded and devalued. I am trying to avoid being cavalier about its use, something I feel guilty I even have to remind myself to do.”
Is it just a word and should we not worry about whether it holds depth or not? If the answer were to be yes then there are a bunch of words that have started campaigns of equality and justice that would then have been for nothing. Where else is the word Love used so much? Well I have a church background and still involved and at times I visit other churches that are not traditional in service and all you hear is LOVE!
I asked a family member about their church and she went on about how wonderful the pastor is and sung his praises. She tells me that we don’t have to believe in the Ten Commandments anymore because Jesus dying fixed all of that and all we have to do is Love one another and nothing else. I felt like a puppy because I turned my head to the side out of curiosity. I didn’t get into an argument with her but I could see the desire in her face of wanting to be right so I left it alone, will she ever know that by me leaving it alone was my expression of Love to her? and an unconditional love at that?
The problem with this is when I have been to similar churches they usually don’t say much other than a quick verse in the Bible with a lot of “thank you Jesus” in between then a suggestion that one should Love like Jesus did. If anyone has ever been in a relationship you know as well as I do that at some point our partner will ask “why do you love me?” You better have a really good answer because if you don’t then it becomes obvious that you might not really know that person and they will know it based on your answer. How do we know that Jesus loves us if you don’t really know the Brother? Is reading scripture enough to understand Him?
Let’s move on to non-religious views on love which isn’t far from what I have already said…”I Love that book!” Is a common one I hear a lot and what I have noticed is that it sometimes is said to a person that knows the author, which would mean to the person that is expressing that Love that one day they will be introduced to the author, or trying to find something in common with someone else in hopes of friendship or more.
What has happened in our society for us to “LOVE” everything? Or “HATE” everything? If anything it is a sign of emptiness in our society that we are unaware of what it truly means to love someone. Most romantic comedies the word love is used so much that it does become a cliché when used. Hate seems to have become a favorite word for people that misunderstand something or are unclear of something’s purpose so they simple say that they hate it.
This would mean that our society is heading to become one of absolutes in feelings, as shallow as they may be, in determining what is worthy of our attention. How does this affect our youth in particular? Recently there have been some youth that have been charged in attacks on people and when asked why they did it the unfortunate answers have been “I don’t know I just did it.” When you take the time out to plan an attack lure someone into an alley and beat them it is not a “just because” it is a lack of depth in that youths life that allowed them to do what they did.
When you express the emotion of Love to someone there should be a mix of feelings involved here and that is something neither I nor anyone else can explain because it takes on different forms in different people. For me it becomes complex, difficult, sad, exciting, and energizing to express that to someone else and I do say sad because when one truly loves someone else you will feel sad when they are not around but you still Love them.
It took a long time for me to be able to express the word Love to another man and that is something that in the “hood” you don’t do because it might mean something else. We all know that is an ignorant way to look at it but one day I found myself grateful and inspired by an action that a Brother took in my protection and I understood it as his way of expressing his love for me. Later on I told him “I love you Bro!” and he smiled from corner to corner and said “Yea I love you too!” and threw in a wink and there I knew that he meant that we would be Brothers within the same struggle.
It is that depth we seek as humans to understand each and every expression in our lives so that we can have as much of a full understand as to what is going on in us. It is human nature to ask someone that runs around saying “Jesus loves you!” or “I’m going to love you like Jesus did!” How does He love me? You need to have an answer other than “He died for our sins…” because His love is unconditional and I seriously doubt that everyone running around saying that they love like Jesus have that unconditional love inside of them!
When your partner asks you why you love them it should never be because you both like to watch Jersey shore or go out drinking every Saturday night it really needs to about your human and spiritual experience.
There is no problem in asking why someone loves you including Jesus because that is an expression of loving right back and wanting to have that feeling of knowing so that you can Love back.
Peace/AMOR----I really mean it and ask me why I do and I will tell you.
Gerardo
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