Love

One of my favorite books is "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Too bad she never wrote another book but how could she top Mockingbird. She wrote essays and one in particular, on love, "Love-In Other Words" is beautifully written.

Harper Lee was, and will always be, a force for compassion, good and understanding in the world.

Love-In Other Words

What is love? Many things are love–indeed, love is present in pity, compassion, romance, affection. What made the Duke of Kent’s statement a declaration of love, and what makes us perform without second thought small acts of love every day of our lives, is an element conspicuous by its absence. Were it present, the Duke of Kent would have left his mistress without a pang; the sound barrier breaking over her head would not rouse the mother; sinking his putt would be the primary aim of the golfer; the housewife would go straight to the store with no thought of her neighbor. One thing identifies love and isolates it from kindred emotions: love admits not of self.

Few of us achieve compassion; to some of us romance is a word; in many of us the ability to feel affection has long since died; but all of us at one time or another - be it for an instant or for our lives - have departed from ourselves: we have loved something or someone. Love, then is a paradox: to have it, we must give it. Love is not an intransitive thing – ­love is a direct action of mind and body.

Without love, life is pointless and dangerous. Man is on his way to Venus, but he still hasn’t learned to live with his wife. Man has succeeded in increasing his life span, yet he exterminates his brothers six million at a whack. Man now has the power to destroy himself and his planet: depend upon it, he will – should he cease to love ...

Love purifies. Suffering never purified anybody; suffering merely intensifies the self-directed drives within us. Any act of love, however – no matter how small – lessens anxiety’s grip, gives us a taste of tomorrow, and eases the yoke of our fears. Love, unlike virtue, is not its own reward. The reward of love is peace of mind, and peace of mind is the end of man’s desiring.

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Harper Lee captures the true meaning of love perfectly: that to love someone is to be willing to sacrifice your own well-being for them. And that love, in the end, has the power to purge mankind of its sin and its suffering.