Post
by ProfAllister » Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:47 pm
Love it to will the good of the subject. You love yourself - it is your innermost desire to seek fulfillment, to have a sense of completeness, to be happy.
To love another is to have that same sense of desire of the good for another. You want them to be fulfilled, complete, happy.
Insofar as you have an imperfect love, you can "love" someone for the wrong reasons. You want them to be fulfilled, complete, happy (or for them to think they are), so you can get into their pants/inheritance/ whatever.
When you love someone, you're happy because they're happy, you're sad because they're sad. When you love a woman, you're happy that she's found a man that makes her happy. If she loves you, then she's happy that you've found a woman that makes you happy. In a platonic relationship, her man is not you, and your woman is not her. In a romantic relationship, they are one and the same.
A parent loves their child. They are happy when the child is happy, sad when the child is sad.
By extension, the lover is happy when they see something that will make the beloved happy, and sad when they see something that will make the beloved sad, whether or not the beloved is aware of this ultimate effect.
And then we get to the final component:
To know is to love is to serve. You cannot love that which you don't know. You cannot love that which you don't serve. If you love someone, you know what makes them happy, and will do what you can to make them happy. If you know someone, you cannot help to see the good within them, and do what you can for the good of someone as good as them. If you serve someone, you must know them, to know what will make them happy, and you must love them, to truly desire their good.
Obviously, we use imperfect terms for "to know," "to love," and "to serve" in regular conversation.
I love my spouse. I love my parents. I love my siblings. I love everyone on this forum, and beyond. I have moments of weakness, and it is much easier to love people with a close connection in a truer sense, but I try to love, insofar as I am capable, everyone that I meet. I wish the good for my spouse on an intimate and personal level, as we share so much of ourselves, and give much of ourselves for the sake of the other. I wish the good for my parents, as they have given so much for me, out of filial duty, but also because of my great familiarity with them - I am aware, in a vague sense, of their hopes and dreams - in a sense, I AM their hopes and dreams. I wish the good for my siblings on a close level, as blood is thicker than water, but I cannot know them or serve them at the same level as my spouse. I wish the good of the people on this forum, as there is a bond of common kinship - we have been touched by KS, and we have taken it upon ourselves to share ourselves with complete strangers, to hold each other accountable, even though we profit nothing from it. I want the Emibros to get in shape, because they've decided it's important to them, and they will be better for it. I want the Hanabros to give the world a second chance, because they'll never find love as long as they refuse to trust others. I want the Shizunebros, Rinbros, and Lilybros to do whatever they do, because it will make them better for it. Heck, even the Kenjibros, Akirabros, and Jigorobros have something that touched them enough for them to seek change within themselves, and I am all for that.
It is highly unlikely that I will profit from some random schmuck on the internet making his life better, but it makes me happy to know that I can do something to help him. And, in the end, each candle may be insignificant on its own, but each candle will make the world a little brighter and a little warmer.
