I want to share another quote that came up in class the other day. The topic of that day's class was "love." In an effort to define "love" my prof shared a bit of writing from a book called 'All About Love' (I think that it is by Bell-Hooks.).
What do you think of this definition of love? Keep in mind this is a definition given at my enormous liberal state university. Pretty interesting...
Love is..
"..The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or anothers [appropriate] spiritual growth."
I added the word "appropriate" because I think that we can get into trouble when we assume that love looks similarly for all people. Also, the definition is not exclusively Christian, which makes it interesting. Are we talking about spiritual growth toward whatever god that person esteems or does "spiritual growth" in this case necessarily mean encouraging someone toward a thriving communion with Jesus?
I have been stewing over this lately..
What do you think? leave a comment if you'd like. :)
4 comments:
The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own...
I'd say that first part sounds awfully self-consumed, and illogical, even. Extending your self to nurture your self? Love is helping your self become a better self?
Apples are apples because the seeds of them become apples again.
I think love is sacrificial. Whether you believe Jesus or not, it follows logically. Without sacrifice there is no love, just happy mush.
i read recently that to love someone is to nuture their spritual growth and in turn your own spirit grows.
so is to grow, to love?
i think so.
Ok, I've posted this already as a comment on another blog this week. But it's worth two times.
While writing from Rome in the late Spring, a wise old poet once said...
It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love.
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Letter 7. (May 14, 1904)
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