Sunday, December 22, 2019

Bell Hooks: To Live Our Lives Based on a Love Ethic


Embracing a love ethic means that we utilize all the dimensions of love — care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge — in our everyday lives.

When we can see ourselves as we truly are and accept ourselves, we build on the necessary foundation for self-love. 

The choice to love is a choice to connect—to find ourselves in the other.

*****

To maintain and satisfy greed, one must support domination. And the world of domination is always a world without love.

From the moment little boys are taught they should not cry or express hurt, feelings of loneliness, or pain, that they must be tough, they are learning how to mask true feelings. In worst-case scenarios they are learning how to not feel anything ever.

Love is as love does. Love is an act of will — namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love. Since the choice must be made to nurture growth, this definition counters the more widely accepted assumption that we love instinctually.  

*****

Spiritual seekers let their light shine so that others may see; not only to give service by example, but also to constantly remind themselves that spirituality is most gloriously embodied in our actions, our habits of being.

To live our lives based on the principles of a love ethic (showing care, respect, knowledge, integrity, and the will to cooperate), we have to be courageous. Learning how to face our fears is one way we embrace love. Our fear may not go away, but it will not stand in the way. Those of us who have already chosen to embrace a love ethic, allowing it to govern and inform how we think and act, know that when we let our light shine, we draw to us and are drawn to other bearers of light. We are not alone. 

Bell Hooks

No comments:

Post a Comment