What is Love? Ah, that universal question, which has haunted philosophers through the ages. On February 14 we celebrate Valentines Day and honor the loved ones in our lives. But Love is so much more than paper Valentines cards, a box of chocolates or naughty lingerie. Love is the deep, deep bond that holds our little planet together, and there is no time more important to think about Love than right now.
Existentialist Rollo May once said, "Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is." We can see all around us the evidence of the power of love to move us to do things for other people. We sacrifice ourselves for our loved ones and work to overcome all kinds of obstacles for the sake of love. This power is not only true for romantic relationships, but for other kinds of love too. The ancient Greeks said that there were four different kinds of love: Agape, a pure and selfless love, Eros, a sensual love of beauty, Philia, a brotherly and virtuous love, and Storge, the love between a parent and child.
When we broaden our understanding of love, we can see our behaviors as being motivated by the different kinds of love in our lives. We compost, because we love mother earth with the soulful love of Agape. We work to end homelessness, out of a deep feeling of Philia for our fellow human beings. We strive for healthy relationships within our families, building up from the basic foundation of love laid down by Storge. We increase the beauty in the world around us by creating beautiful pieces of artwork and sensuously honoring the physical, sexual love of Eros in our lives.
Apathy traps us in miserable, loveless lives and robs us of our power to change situations for the better. Apathy causes people to stay home on voting day, to throw away useful things that could be reused or recycled, to plop kids in front of a video instead of playing with them, and to walk right on past a fellow human being in need.
John Lennon had it right when he said, "All we need is love." We need the big, universal love and the focused, interpersonal love, and all the different kinds of love in between, to get us through the changes on humanity's horizon. Perhaps the most important kind of love is self-love, because when we love ourselves and we understand that the whole world is interconnected as one, we can see that sending love out into the world is the same as loving ourselves. So this Valentines Day, send a paper heart to yourself and initiate some magical, positive changes in the world through the power of love.
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