For a little while now, I’ve wanted to start a blog about human connectedness, focused on a theme that unites us all as people no matter what our background might be. In the coming months I’m going to travel outside of my Los Angeles habitat to the other side of the globe where I will continue writing, but for now, I have the opportunity to begin my blog in the city I grew up in. Seems like home is the best place to start.
The comfort of being home can sometimes make me complacent in my interactions with strangers, because it’s easy to go through the motions in a familiar city. I can show others courtesy and respect without really considering the secret stories I’ll never know. Everyone has a past that informs how he views the world. As soon as I remember that, my acts of kindness towards others become more deliberate and I also become aware of the kindness I see from others. I believe that these acts of kindness—no matter how small—are evidence of the love we all have for one another as people. I don’t think love is just the emotion you have for those most intimate with you, but that it’s a force that connects us all, familiars and strangers alike.
At least in the part of the world I’ve grown up in, “love” is a word thrown around all day every day, almost to the point of overuse. It’s applied to material objects just as much as it’s applied to other living beings. How can the same word be used to describe how one feels about a song or a type of food, and also be used to describe how one feels about a grandmother, a child, or a lover? But perhaps the widespread use of this word speaks not to its irrationality (of course, who ever says love is rational?) but more to its overwhelming power over all of us as human beings. We love because we are human. We sing about it, we write about it, we hunt for it—we are driven towards finding Love for the entirety of our lives. Yet what is it that we are searching for?
It is nearly impossible to define love without circular logic and it can’t be identified by concrete characteristics or examples. But in the words of Potter Stewart, “I know it when I see it.” I believe we come to know love by observing it in action, until our understanding of what love is and what it is not becomes intuitive.
I’m no expert on the subject, but I know that I have felt it and I know that I have seen it around me wherever I have been in the world. I would like to investigate the nature of love and discover it in ways I haven’t before. Perhaps then I can help uncover some truths about this intangible mystery—or at the very least, uncover some truths about the search for love itself.
The comfort of being home can sometimes make me complacent in my interactions with strangers, because it’s easy to go through the motions in a familiar city. I can show others courtesy and respect without really considering the secret stories I’ll never know. Everyone has a past that informs how he views the world. As soon as I remember that, my acts of kindness towards others become more deliberate and I also become aware of the kindness I see from others. I believe that these acts of kindness—no matter how small—are evidence of the love we all have for one another as people. I don’t think love is just the emotion you have for those most intimate with you, but that it’s a force that connects us all, familiars and strangers alike.
At least in the part of the world I’ve grown up in, “love” is a word thrown around all day every day, almost to the point of overuse. It’s applied to material objects just as much as it’s applied to other living beings. How can the same word be used to describe how one feels about a song or a type of food, and also be used to describe how one feels about a grandmother, a child, or a lover? But perhaps the widespread use of this word speaks not to its irrationality (of course, who ever says love is rational?) but more to its overwhelming power over all of us as human beings. We love because we are human. We sing about it, we write about it, we hunt for it—we are driven towards finding Love for the entirety of our lives. Yet what is it that we are searching for?
It is nearly impossible to define love without circular logic and it can’t be identified by concrete characteristics or examples. But in the words of Potter Stewart, “I know it when I see it.” I believe we come to know love by observing it in action, until our understanding of what love is and what it is not becomes intuitive.
I’m no expert on the subject, but I know that I have felt it and I know that I have seen it around me wherever I have been in the world. I would like to investigate the nature of love and discover it in ways I haven’t before. Perhaps then I can help uncover some truths about this intangible mystery—or at the very least, uncover some truths about the search for love itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment