The Power of Love
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Hello friends, I’ve been angry since childhood. Therefore, I think a lot about love. Seem strange? Like a contradiction? Not so much. My anger has always been rooted in a sense of injustice, on scales both minuscule and large. And that sense of injustice comes from love. When we create from love, we change. When we fight injustice because we love, we change. We change ourselves and each other, and over time, we change the course of things. This morning, a friend sent a bell hooks quote, from a book of hers that I deeply appreciate. The book is “all about love” and speaks of love as both a personal and political act. I highly recommend it. In this quote, philosopher bell hooks says: “When we choose to love we choose to move against fear - against alienation and separation. The choice to love is the choice to connect - to find ourselves in the other.” Two decades ago, I used to sit in meditation with a small group of friends on the sidewalk in front of the San Francisco Federal Building during round two of the so-called US Gulf Wars. The sign I regularly held read Love > Fear. Philosopher hooks starts the quote above by talking about systems of domination and how they rely upon fear. What we are seeing now are people everywhere countering those calls of fear and intimidation with an upsurging of love and community connection. I see love everywhere these days. It gives me hope. Things are not okay, and are likely to get worse, but as long as we continue to love each other and act firmly from that place, I have hope that we will make it through. With you in love. Best wishes — Thorn
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T. Thorn Coyle
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