THIS I BELIEVE
Photo by Tyler Nix

THIS I BELIEVE

Following are two quotes from MLK, Jr. whom I admired and followed for years. I finally met him in 1968 in Detroit, one month before he was assassinated in Memphis on April 4. He was 39 years old.? I was 31.? That experience changed the trajectory of my life. More details about that time are in Chapter Three, “Turbulent Times: Rocking the Boat” in Seven Decades: A Learning Memoir.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

?“I choose love because hate is too great a burden to bear.”?

MLK, Jr.? (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

Those of us limited to English have one word, love, which is used for loving everything from ourselves and what we do, to another person, to our families, to our dogs, cats, and horses, to our cars and other material things, to the essence of nature itself.?There is also the religious dimension expressed in various world religions and among indigenous and native people most often referring to a higher power beyond ourselves. There are different names in different cultures for that creative force that has loved us into being.? Yahweh, God, Allah, Shiva or Vishnu, Kami, Shen, Ngai, Jah, Biame, Wakan Tanka, Gtiche Manitou, Waheguru and Zeus, among others.?

Native people who live in and with the natural world seem to grasp the essence of our being more than most. This is why many of us find a measure of peace and joy immersed in the world of nature where we love belonging as participants.? We can find ways to love nature a little more and better if we want to protect and preserve it for future generations.

Greek is an example of a language that has 4 different words for love.? Here’s a brief?definition of each one.

Eros – most easily translated as erotic or physical love characterized by deep emotions of attraction and desire, expressed in sexual behaviors and sensual experiences.

Philos – filial love seen as “brotherly” or “sisterly” love, used for love between family members, between friends, and a desire or enjoyment of an activity.

Storge – familial love, that strong bond of love from parents to their children, and vice-versa.

Agape – unconditional love, powerful redeeming love, empathic love and acceptance.

A Biblical description of love appears in the New Testament in Paul’s first letter to the new church community in Corinth.? The church was struggling and in conflict. Paul wanted to urge them to come together around this common bond of love as he understood it. The letter was written around 53-54 c.e. and probably delivered by Titus.

Among the myriad problems in the Corinthian church were claims of spiritual superiority over one another, suing one another in public courts, abusing the sacrament of Holy Communion, and sexual misbehavior. If that sounds familiar in today’s world, so be it.? Paul wrote to demand that the early church community in Corinth step up to higher ethical and moral standards.? In the Greek language of the New Testament, the word for love used in this letter is agape.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2?If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3?If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4?Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5?It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6?Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7?It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8?Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away?….

13?And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (from the New International Version, released in 1978 with a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2011.)

“The act of love is the surrender of self into life as it is. This is a love larger than our word “love” can contain or express. It embraces all of life and does not judge: tragedy and war, suffering and joy, creativity and destruction. Beauty. Death. The Other. Within this embrace of life as it is, lie acceptance, forgiveness, healing.”?? Anne Hillman in “The Dancing Animal Woman.”

How are we expressing our love this year, for ourselves, for others and for the world at large?? We have a choice every day to tell the truth, to be kind and loving and to be the best version of who we are. We hold within us the possibility of making the world a little brighter.

?

?

?

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Gary Gruber, Ph.D.的更多文章

  • AUTUMN OF LIFE

    AUTUMN OF LIFE

    We celebrated the Autumnal Equinox September 22, 2024 and are now "officially" into this new season of Fall. It is a…

    1 条评论
  • CARVING OUT A CREATIVE LIFE

    CARVING OUT A CREATIVE LIFE

    In 1998, at the Santa Fe Indian Art Market, I met Ernest Honanie, a Hopi wood carver/artist from Second Mesa, Arizona…

    1 条评论
  • DIFFERING

    DIFFERING

    Your perceptions and your perspectives are different from mine. We have different histories and different life stories.

  • BEGINNING CHAPTER 88

    BEGINNING CHAPTER 88

    END ONE. BEGIN ANOTHER We measure where we are by where we’ve been.

    7 条评论
  • IT'S ABOUT TIME

    IT'S ABOUT TIME

    Take time. Make time.

  • NOW WHAT?

    NOW WHAT?

    The featured image on this post, a small sailboat, is a far cry from the sailing vessel picture featured on the…

    2 条评论
  • PRESS ON REGARDLESS

    PRESS ON REGARDLESS

    I watched an interview yesterday (5/26) with Daria Katsakina, the outstanding tennis player from Russia. She is a…

    1 条评论
  • SHIFT HAPPENS

    SHIFT HAPPENS

    Noun or Verb - SHIFT An automatic transmission shifts gears up and down according to the need of the engine. We could…

    2 条评论
  • CHRISTMAS AND STUFF 2023

    CHRISTMAS AND STUFF 2023

    A funny thing happened in late 2012 on the way to Best Buy. I was listening to NPR and an interview with Annie Leonard,…

  • WINTER SOLSTICE 2023

    WINTER SOLSTICE 2023

    This year's winter solstice occurs on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023 at 10:27 p.

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了