Love: gritty, dangerous, wild-eyed, justice-seeking
“Everywhere we learn that love is important, and yet we are bombarded by its failure. In the realm of the political, among the religious, in our families, and in our romantic lives, we see little indication that love informs decisions, strengthens our understanding of community, or keeps us together. This bleak picture in no way alters the nature of our longing. We still hope that love will prevail. We still believe in love’s promise.” — bell hooks, All About Love
I’ve been reading Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown and have really enjoyed all of it. I will write a post dedicated to it when I finish, but I have been thinking about the section on love for days. Especially the quote at the top of this post from bell hooks, and a quote in the related section on lovelessness, where Brown describes a teaching from another book by bell hooks: Teaching to Transgress. She [Brown] says, “She [hooks] teaches that the injustice and systemic oppression that we see in the world today stem from a deep, collective lovelessness and calls for an ethic of love”. (Brown, 2021, p. 187)
An ethic of love — what a concept! I want to live by an ethic of love.
Father God, You promise that love never fails and You’ve modeled unchanging, revolutionary, real, and everlasting love time and time again. Show me how to love like You. And empower me to step into lovelessness with love. Real love. Gritty, dangerous, wild-eyed, justice-seeking love.
