I’m reading a book about love at the moment. It’s not a dating book, or a romance novel,
but it is about loving people.
I don’t believe in half-hearted love; I don’t think there
can be such a thing. Love is many
things, but it is not apathetic. I had a
beautiful conversation the other day (you know – the kind when you talk about everything, get a little deep, pull back
the curtains of small talk and connect with another person for real) and it
came up that the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. (Wikiquote tells me Elie Wiesel said it first,
whoever that is...)
I also don’t believe we can love everyone; the heart wants
what it wants*. I sometimes wonder if
there is a wilder beast in the world than the heart. Soldier
is a song by Ingrid Michaelson and she says: ‘The battle with the heart isn’t
easily won ... but it can be won.’
Love is not rational.
That is something I truly believe.
Love should be ridiculous, pointless, whimsical, without thought of
consequence, or of getting anything in return.
We should love without reason, even without hope sometimes, wildly,
recklessly, passionately.
I reckon loving in this way is a magnificent, exciting
adventure. It’s a rollercoaster, with
ups, downs, crazy loops and almost unbearable forces at times. And yeah, it's scary sometimes, but I think when you look back, even if you
weren’t loved in return, you’ll know
you truly lived.
Interesting that those two words are only
one letter different, don’t you think?
*I do think we can be
loving towards everyone but, in this context, that’s not the same as loving
them...
Ellie Wisel is a jewish concentration camp survivor and he wrote 'Night', a very famous (and harrowing) book telling his account of the holocaust and being in the camp. He's also a political activist and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986... He's one of those writers who is very uncomfortable reading in a good way, if you see what I mean... He knew what he was talking about with that quote. Loving without hope is ultimately the greatest form of love, since it's not about you, it's about the other person, as you said. It's also very hard though at times, and very costly. Maybe if we all loved with that kind of love, there'd be less pain in the world?
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