Monday, October 18, 2010

Love's Courage

I went to a meeting last weekend with a group of mostly family therapists who gather and call themselves Peaceful Warriors for Social Justice. The conversation came up at that meeting about love and courage. An attendee had a previous conversation with someone, who was not at the present meeting, who suggested that courage was more important than love because without it, what is even the point of love? The conversation that ensued was interesting, most of us feeling that the absent persons opinion was somewhat flawed. I, for one, don’t really see a big separation between the two concepts, but see courage as an important aspect of love, not something that I would want to pull out and call more important. If, however, you were to argue that courage is more important because, without it there is no point in love, I would argue that love is more important because, without it there is no need for courage! Yet, both arguments then end up being pretty circular, so let’s just say love is good, partly because it keeps us strong and courageous.

Love, we confirmed, is definitely an action verb, most of us agreeing that, as Peaceful Warriors we are called to some degree of activism in order to support and advocate for Social Justice. It was a refreshing meeting, spending extended time in the company of people comfortable talking about Love! Imagine a planet with large groups of people on all corners having hours long conversations during their weekends discussing the various aspects of love, courage, and activism towards social justice! Do you think we would be able to sustain as many wars if time off from work lead to meetings of people having such discussions and trying to figure out how to actively and courageously promote these things in the greater world??? Maybe, just maybe, we are on to something here!!
Donna