About Love - Today

I have been thinking about love - today - and in general, what it is, how it will survive, and how we can extend it through oppression. I asked myself if it is just a thing that romantics are grasping at or if it is a value that is altruistic. The irony in this mental debate was when I looked up the definition of “romantic”. What I received back from the internet was the following: “of, characterized by, or suggestive of an idealized view of reality.” This did not help build my hope for an affirming view of love as a positive social construct that we can leverage for a positive future.

So I dig deeper than the internet and AI. I dig into my own personal beliefs, understanding that there is a strong likelihood that I am just that defined romantic. Here, I asked myself, what is it to love someone? Are there different kinds of love, and what comes from loving someone? I respond to my own simple questions with deeper thought, realizing that they are not so simple. For if there is more than one type of love, then loving someone could be different for different people. But I do believe that what comes from love is compassion, empathy, and more love.

There is a sign down the street from me that reads “Ultra MAGA”. I have often thought of placing a series of questions at the base of that sign.

1.      Are you God fearing as MAGA claims to be?

2.      By Christian values, who is allowed to judge?

3.      Do you believe you should follow the rules of God?

4.      What is God’s first rule?

5.      If you live in accordance to God's word, if you do not judge as God is the Judge and Executioner, if you are a true God fearing Christian, how can you judge and persecute, deny love, and disobey the rule of God so easily and claim to be MAGA?

But as I ponder this list of questions, I begin to think that perhaps I am hypocritical, and perhaps I am practicing their faith or a fear faith. I return to asking my initial question. What is love?

So is love that ephemeral connection that binds partners together? Is it a bond between a child and their parent? I guess I can resolve that there are many different aspects to love and different kinds of love. This raises a new question for me: when do we start developing a sense of love, and is there a more important type or frame for love? I would argue that perhaps the models we do, or do not, get in childhood and our more formative years, shape our image of love. I also believe there is an intrinsic sense and need for love that is much more instinctual. I additionally postulate that perhaps there is an organic need in the human makeup for love. Perhaps the denial of that need leads to sadness, anger, and hatred.

Expanding on that postulation, I raise what is perhaps a controversial question: who loves our president? I am not talking about a fan base. I mean truly loves him. Who is willing to look past the atrocities and offer a gift of love? Can we acknowledge that God, or Karma, or time will judge him and that we, as humans, need to accept him for his biological being and offer a gift of love? Perhaps through that we can find compassion and peace.

Please keep in mind that I write this as a disabled, transgender lesbian who lives well below the poverty level. For me, this is not an attempt to seek support for the president. Rather, this is an attempt to find peace in my own heart. To find some explanation for the anger, the hatred, the preposterous turmoil in the world that, from my vantage, seems to be coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I need some path to peace in my own heart.

As I said at the beginning, I am a romantic. We already clarified that as having an idealized view of reality. But the definition also explains how a romantic is characterized by the expression of love. I am a romantic. I hope to wear love on my sleeve and seek to find ways to extend love to everyone. Through that expression, may we find peace.