In “A Child is Born” a great photographic look on life inside the womb, Lennart Nilson and Lars Hamberger begin their work with love:
“Love is an incredibly strong, enduring force and has been since time immemorial. The pattern is recognized in every culture in our world: two people are mutually attracted and feel the irresistible urge to unite.”
Love is a very powerful verb. It overcomes all things; it endures all things. Every culture around the world and every people can understand the language of love. If I traveled to Germany and saw a man having trouble standing up straight I will be moved to assist him, along with other bystanders who will immediately drop their current endeavors to assist this man—this is the language of love. We do not need to speak the German tongue to know that he needs help. This is the power of love. Sometimes love will cause one person to separate from another, not because they hate them, but because they love themselves too much to allow another person to continuously cross them because just as love is beautiful, love is also discipline. Even in war, the army that loves is always the army that wins because love overcomes hate. It possesses a very strong and immovable purity. If a man fights for a cause he truly loves, that cause is better able to grow because of his love for it. For this reason we should not think that discipline is not love. Sometimes love will require you to do away with those things you enjoy doing because it’s wrong or is just not healthy for you. After all, you cannot love anyone else if you do not love yourself first.
The world teaches us that anything (to which it promotes) truth or no truth, must be accepted as truth or else that rejection is void of love. Just because I don’t agree with you does not mean I don’t love you. It does not mean I won’t offer you the same love that is due everyone else. But if asked I’m going to tell you the truth, and I’m going to do it without judgment because “it is rain that grows flowers, not thunder” (Rumi). At the same time, when it get to the point where we can no longer walk together, this will not mean that I don’t love you, though that’s what the world teaches. If I cut you off it does not mean that I hate you, it’s just that I will not allow myself to be disrespected, nor will I conform to the contours of lies for the sake of peace, because I love myself too much to be willingly led astray. It is only logical, that when two people can no longer agree, the two must separate, but they can still love each other in the process. As a result, if there’s anything you need that I have, I will give it if given the chance because that’s love. I don’t have to agree with you, but I can forgive you of all your transgressions against me, and if you need the shirt off my back I will give it to you because that’s love. If you look around you however, you will see that this understanding is absent in the world. Too many people are filled with pride. They walk around holding onto grudges as if they themselves have the power to save and to condemn. Men have grown cold and the thought of his heart is only evil continually.
Have you ever wondered why children are so precious? Do you ever wonder why they speak to everyone? Why they want to hug and cling onto everyone they see? In this world we have to shield them from that, touching and speaking to everyone, because people have become so defiled with hatred. The reason however, children touch and feel is because they have a genuine love for others. It is only when we age that we lose some of that virtue and we become just as cold and hateful as the world around us. The world does not know love. The world does not teach love. The world does not love. Instead, in many ways the world has robbed us of love; like a child who loses his innocence, we have lost track of how to love. It is our life source yet it is missing from our lives. It is the umbilical cord that connects us to our creator and to the rest of mankind. It is both essential and necessary for mankind to surround itself with love. It is the air we breathe and without it we suffocate. In fact, mankind today is suffocating and have been for a long time; suffering silently because it does not have love. Man searches for it, but he is unable to find it. From the moment we emerge from our mother’s wombs we are looking for love. Many of us search for it, yearn for it, and even act out because we do not have it. We know it mostly by way of its relation to relationships. This is just one of the primary ways to which we seek to find it, in the embrace of another person; because mankind was made in the image of love, so in each other is where we often seek it.
If as a result mankind cannot love, then the very thing that makes us human has failed us because we do not know love, cannot find love, and cannot exhibit love. It is a love that is so important to have that it is required before we can ever attempt to define what it means to be human, for humanity itself requires it. That’s why some people just wake up and decide to murder an entire family. They are so imbalanced that they explode, go crazy, and become deranged; they lose track of their humanity, and all because they do not know love.
When mankind loses the ability to love or to be loved by someone else, mankind is no longer human. That’s the power of love, and it is the answer to every question.
The PBS Blog 