Treatise on Love - Part I - The Underbelly

Aahh, love. What a loaded word. Too bad there aren't as many words in the English language to describe the full range of uses for this four letter word as there are in the Eskimo language for another four letter word, snow!

Seriously, after many years of exploration of the word through experiences of all of the senses, it seems appropriate to write down some of my interpretations, examples, and perception nuances of it. I suppose that my intention of doing so will expand the consciousness of others and explore my own boundaries with creative consciousness.

So many times, i have been in judgment about how people loved me. Not understanding the full exposure of what the power of the energy of love is, and it's goal to be the ultimate energy for growth, evolution, and expansion. As i read somewhere, "We ask for Love, but, if we only knew what that really meant". Rumi said something like, "love is the strongest evolutionary force." I am probably misquoting that, but that's what's sticking in my mind. My interpretation is that Love, whether it feels good or not, helps us to achieve a higher form of evolution.

Another thought is that all forms of love are actually stepping stones towards Divine love. When i questioned myself about that, my internal response was that yes, through basest forms of lust, desire, and eventually love, our souls seek the experience of unconditional love as humans, and then Divine love, or at-one-ness.

One of the most difficult aspects of looking at love objectively, is the many forms it may take. For example, the exploitation of children. Children are initiated and exploited at very young ages to be the object of lust and desire. There are so many ways in which this is acted out in society. Some of the most twisted versions of love, like pedophilia, seems to have always been in existence historically. Through the use of the internet and other modes of technology, this exploitation, an example of an aspect of desire, has become more prevalent and even more accepted. In part, it is my belief that this is true from the standpoint that people have become numbed to what is happening via media, through repeated stimulation of violence and sex. Although government has sought to inhibit child pornography, prostitution, and slavery, it continues to exist here and elsewhere in the world. Many people choose to ignore or can't fathom this type of love, and they don't see it eventhough they may be blatantly confronted with it. It doesn't fit into their concept of what is real.

According to The National Alert Registry, one in three girls and one in six boys stand to be the victims of sexual abuse. There are 11 known child molesters living in my zip code. Moreover, along with all of the Katrina victims, there are many more ex-convicts who have not "checked in" with the authorities in the districts where they have relocated. This is only part of what is happening throughout the world. It has been my experience, speaking with my friends, that many of us know someone or have experienced ourselves, the aspect of love in the form of incest and/or rape. Not a subject most people want to talk about and confront, unless they are taking steps to heal themselves. It has been well documented that many of the perpetrators are victims themselves, acting out their own abuse on others. It has been my observation that people who actively confront and deal with their own experiences of abuse and incest are most likely to stop the continuation of those behaviors towards others...Perhaps an example of evolution through conscious awareness.

There are many other more socially acceptable forms of love on the path to divine love that i will describe in future posts.